Your Savior is Born: AS PROMISED
Isaiah 7:14
INTRODUCTION
If you have spent any time traveling down Hwy 61 between Troy and Wentzville you have probably noticed the signs MODot has placed along the road to mark the various road improvement projects that have been recently undertaken. When MODot starts a new project, a sign goes up announcing the project with a projected completion date. When the road construction project is completed a diagonal strip is placed over the sign with the following phrase proudly displayed: “Completed as Promised”. MODot wants every Missouri taxpayer to know they have been good stewards of the tax funds allocated to them by completing yet another road project AS PROMISED.
If God wanted to take a tip from MODot’s Public Relations firm I guess He could have placed a similar sign over the manger in Bethlehem stating, “Your Savior is Born: AS PROMISED”.
Whenever we read the Christmas story we generally go to Matthew or Luke to read the details given in these two gospels about the birth of Jesus Christ. But the Christmas story as recorded in the Bible actually begins much earlier than that, hundreds of years earlier. Throughout the Old Testament God placed road signs in the writings of various prophets and other OT authors promising sinful man the birth of a Savior.
The first promise of the coming Christ was actually given by God in the very first book of the Old Testament, in Genesis 3:15. In the midst of God’s judgment against Adam and Eve and the serpent for their part in allowing sin to enter into the world, God the Father makes an amazingly gracious promise concerning the coming of His only begotten Son to earth to become our Savior. Speaking to the serpent that allowed Satan to use him to tempt Eve to sin, God proclaims:
And I will put enmity between you and the woman, And between your seed and
her seed; He shall bruise you on the head ,And you shall bruise him on the heel.
In this very first Christmas prophesy, God promised Adam and Eve that a child would be born from a descendant of Eve who would destroy sin’s power over mankind. That promised Messiah was Jesus Christ. At the cross of Jesus, God would deal a death blow to Satan’s head that would be far more deadly than the bruised heal Satan’s hatred would be able to inflict on our Savior. Satan’s hatred would inspire men to bring much suffering upon Jesus. But by raising Jesus from the dead, God the Father would deal a fatal blow against Satan by gaining victory over the power of both death and sin. It is unlikely Adam and Eve recognized the significance of these words and the time God made this pronouncement. But as other Old Testament gave more prophesies the message became clearer.
The Prophet Isaiah, writing nearly 600 years before the birth of Christ, was able to see across the centuries to give an amazingly accurate picture of the birth of our Savior. Listen to the words of prophesy recorded in Isaiah 7:14
Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin
will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.
Isaiah said that the virgin birth of Jesus would be “a certain sign” that Messiah had come. We find perfect harmony with this prophecy and the actual pronouncement that was made by the angels when the announced the birth of Jesus in Luke 2:10-12.
And the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good
news of a great joy which shall be to all people. For today in the city of David
there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will
be the sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths, and lying in a manger.”
With the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem God placed His own “Completed as Promised” sign over all the Old Testament prophesies that spoke of the birth of the coming Messiah.
The birth of Jesus as a tiny baby in Bethlehem from the womb of a virgin was an amazing supernatural sign. Today I want us to take a look at three aspects of what this sign should mean to us today.
TRANS: As a sign from God, the birth of Jesus as a tiny baby in Bethlehem is, first of all:
I. An Important Sign Of God’s Power
EXP: OT and NT Scripture make it clear that the birth of Jesus was not a normal birth. It was a supernatural birth. Isaiah’s prophecy predicted that “a virgin” would conceive and bear a child. The word “virgin” used here denotes a woman who has never been sexually intimate with any man, not just a young woman. This amazing promise must have caused Jewish scholars to wonder exactly what God meant by making such a promise. No doubt, some Jewish scholars probably had no problem believing God could cause a virgin to bear a son. But many probably wondered if the reference to a virgin giving birth was perhaps symbolic of something else. But when we read about the encounter Mary had with the Lord’s angel Gabriel announcing God’s desire to bring His Son into the world there can be no doubt what the prophesy meant. It meant exactly what it said; a virgin woman was going to give birth to Israel’s promised Messiah! The birth of Jesus was prophesied by Isaiah and documented by Luke as a miraculous event unlike any the world has ever known. The virgin birth of Jesus was a certain sign of God’s power. But it is not a sign that is easy for everyone in our modern day to accept.
ILL: I can remember attending a Christmas program as a teenager while our family lived in Germany that was my first encounter with there being any doubt about Jesus’ virgin birth. The Christmas story was being read from Luke 1. When the preacher read Luke 1:34 where Mary says, “How can this be since I am a virgin?” several people, both adults and teenagers, seated in the pew in front of my family began to snicker. Apparently, the possibility of a virgin birth seemed so unreasonable to these individuals that they could not keep their doubt contained.
EXP: That skepticism about the virgin birth of Jesus is shared by many more people today. Because we live in a society that has elevated so-called science above Scripture, there are vast numbers of people today who scoff at the virgin birth of Jesus. And yet, the majority of people today believe in an all-powerful God. But if we believe in an omnipotent God, why should the virgin birth of Jesus cause anyone to snicker or scoff? Either God can perform miracles or He cannot. If God had the power to create heaven and earth and every form of life that dwells upon the earth in a single week is it really that much of a stretch to believe that God could bring His Son into this world through the womb of a virgin? Would the virgin birth of Jesus be harder of a miracle for God to perform than the parting of the Red Sea or providing the manna God gave to Israel in the wilderness every morning for forty years? No miracle is hard for an all-powerful omnipotent God to perform. But some miracles are a greater testament to God’s power than others.
EXP: For example, in the Old Testament and the New Testament God works through many different individuals to cause the lame to walk. But only by the hand of Jesus, God’s only begotten Son did anyone ever regain their sight. That miracle was reserved by God to be a certain sign of the Messiah. The virgin birth is also in a class by itself. It is a miracle that is never repeated in Scripture. The virgin birth was reserved by God as a sign of His power to bring His Son into this sinful world as a helpless baby uniquely qualified to become the sinless sacrifice that could pay the price of our sin because Almighty God, not Joseph or any other man, was His father.
APP: In celebrating Christmas we celebrate the fulfillment of this prophecy. God became man. Jesus, being God in the flesh, came and dwelt among us, being born of the virgin Mary.
In Matthew 1:18-25 and Luke 1:26-38 it is made very clear that Isaiah 7:14 had its ultimate fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ.
TRANS: But the virgin birth of Jesus is more than a sign of God’s power. It is also:
II. An Amazing Sign Of God’s Love.
EXP: Isaiah’s prophecy went on to proclaim that the one born of a virgin was to be called, “Immanuel” which means “God with us.” With that prophetic name God was making an amazing promise. God was promising that He Himself would come to us in human form as the most certain sign of His love that He could possibly give.
EXP: In the Old Testament we find many accounts that speak of God appearing to individuals in human form. In Genesis we are told that God “walked in the garden” with Adam. Later God appeared to Abraham as a weary traveler. In the lion’s den Daniel saw the image of a being whose appearance was “as the Son of Man”. Most Bible scholars believe this to be an appearance of Jesus as a spirit in the form of a man. These special appearances of God to man in human form in the Old Testament are called epiphanies. I believe we would all agree these are pretty amazing signs of God’s Love.
EXP: But with the birth of Jesus, God goes a step further to demonstrate His love for us. In the Old Testament, God took on human form temporarily. But in the New Testament, when God wanted to communicate His love to us in the most convincing way possible, He sent Jesus into this world to be born of a virgin so He could walk among us as a living and breathing human being capable of experiencing all the frailties and limitations of our human existence. The theological word for this is “incarnation,” God becoming flesh and blood. Nothing proves the love of God more than His willingness to send Jesus to be born into this world from the womb of a virgin, live in this world as a sinless man and then suffer and die the most humiliating death possible.
EXP: John 3:16, the most familiar verse in the entire Bible, captures the essence of amazing nature of God’s love for us.
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever
believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
The Apostle Paul proclaims the depths of God’s love for mankind in Philippians 2:6-8
who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God
a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant,
and being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man,
He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
ILL: One well-known Christian author, James Montgomery Boice, eloquently documents amazing things Jesus’ virgin birth, sinless life and sacrificial death accomplished for mankind as an amazing sign of His love.
Jesus endured a human birth to give us a new spiritual birth.
He occupied a stable that we might occupy a mansion.
He had an earthly mother so that we might have a heavenly Father.
He became subject so that we might be free.
He left his glory to give us glory.
He was poor that we might be rich.
He was welcomed by shepherds at His birth so we through our new birth can one
day be welcomed by angels.
He was hunted by Herod that we might be delivered from the grasp of Satan.
That is the great paradox of the Christmas story. It is that which makes it irresistibly
attractive. It is the reversal of roles at God’s cost for our benefit.”
James Montgomery Boice. “The Christ of Christmas” (Chicago: Moody, 1983) p. 59
TRANS: But along with being an important sign of God’s power and an amazing sign God’s love, the virgin birth of Jesus as a tiny helpless baby in Bethlehem is also:
III. A Certain Sign Of God’s Faithfulness.
ILL: If I were to proclaim as a prophecy this morning that I will see Pat and Billie Yokel in Wal-Mart in January 2010 it is doubtful that anyone here would be very impressed if my so-called prophesy came true. After all, Pat and Billie are in Wal-Mart quite a bit, as am I. If I were to make my prophecy more specific by predicting we would see each other in Wal-Mart on January 12th at 3:15pm, it might be more impressive if that prediction came true. But you would still probably not be willing to consider me a prophet. The fulfillment of my lame prophecy could still be a coincidence. It could even be a deceptive trick since it would not be hard for me to arrange for to meet with Pat and Billie at that specific time and then claim that God supernaturally arranged for us to meet.
EXP: But the prophecy we find in Isaiah 7:14 is not a prediction that could be so easily manipulated. Jesus’ birth on Christmas day in Bethlehem from the womb of a virgin was no coincidence. Even if you reject what Isaiah 7:14 says about Jesus being born of a virgin, to reject Jesus as the promised Messiah, you still have to explain how all the other prophecies about Jesus’ birth were fulfilled. Isaiah 7:14 is not the only Old Testament prophecy Jesus’ birth fulfilled. There are over 300 separate prophecies concerning the coming Messiah in the Old Testament that Jesus’ birth fulfilled. And most of these prophecies were made 600 years or more before the actual birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem. God’s certain faithfulness is definitely demonstrated by the amazing way He orchestrated world events and individual circumstances so that all the Old Testament prophecies were perfectly fulfilled by the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem. Only a fool would believe the fulfillment of over 600 prophecies could be a mere coincidence.
EXP: When we take the various prophecies and put them together they give us an amazingly detailed portrait of Jesus’ birth as well as a profoundly convincing sign of God’s faithfulness. Let me take a few moments to point out eight of the more significant Old Testament prophetic predictions that were fulfilled through Christ’s birth:
§ In Genesis 18:18 God promised the Messiah would descend from the seed of Abraham and bless all the nations of the earth. This prophecy was given to Abraham years before his only descendent, Isaac, had even been born.
§ Numbers 24:17 promises Messiah will be a direct descendant of Jacob.
§ Then, in Genesis 49:10 it was prophesied that Jesus would descend from the tribe of Judah.
§ In Isaiah 9:7 the prophet narrowed down Jesus’ descendents by prophesying that Jesus would be an heir to the throne of David.
§ In Daniel 9:25 there are details given concerning time in history when Jesus would be born. Daniel says the walls of the Temple and the streets of Jerusalem would be rebuilt, even though it would be a troublesome time. This prophecy was totally fulfilled. When Jesus was born Herod’s Temple was more majestic than even the original Temple, and it was built during a time when Rome ruled in Judah, a troublesome time indeed for the Jews!
§ Jeremiah 31:15 prophetically predicts Herod’s slaughter of all the babies in Bethlehem in his vain attempt to kill a rival king of the Jews.
§ In Hosea 11:1, another prophet predicts the Messiah will be called out of Egypt because of God’s love for Him. This is exactly what Matthew’s gospel says happened. Joseph took Jesus and Mary to Egypt because of a warning he received in a dream allowing Jesus’ life to be spared when Herod went on his killing spree. After Herod died, God called Jesus out of Egypt by letting Joseph know in another dream that it was now safe for them to return.
§ But one of the most specific prophecies of Christ’s birth that amazed early followers of Christ is found in Micah 5:2. In this verse the prophet Micah predicted exactly where the Messiah would be born:
But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of Judah,
From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from
long ago, From the days of eternity.
This verse begins with the word “but” because it is the introduction to something new and grand that is about to enter human history. And surprise, surprise, the origin of this grand new work of God is not in one of Judah’s great cities like Jerusalem. This great work is to originate from the lowly little town of Bethlehem.
ILL: We all know about Bethlehem because we sing about it every Christmas, just like we did today. “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” is a familiar Christmas Carol most of us have sung since before we were old enough to understand the Christmas story. But 2,000 years ago, Bethlehem was not a very well known place, even to the Jews who lived in the region. Just like many people who know all about Elsberry, Winfield and even Foley have never heard of Paynesville, not many people who lived in Judah in Jesus’ day even knew where the little town of Bethlehem was. Bethlehem was so obscure that Micah felt compelled in his prophecy to give his readers a hint where he was talking about! That is why the prophet Micah says, “Bethlehem Ephrathah,” Ephrathah was another name for Jerusalem.
APP: One or two prophecies fulfilled by Jesus’ birth might easily be written off by a skeptic as nothing more than coincidence. But can over three hundred prophecies given by several individuals over 600 years ago be fulfilled by coincidence? That would be virtually impossible.
ILL: In last week’s Sunday School lesson it was shown just how impossible this would be by quoting the work of mathematician Peter Stoner. In his 1969 book entitled “Science Speaks”, Professor Stoner uses the science of probability to calculate the odds of just eight prophecies regarding the birth of Jesus Christ being fulfilled as a coincidence. Stoner says the mathematical probability that any man might fulfill eight unique prophecies of Christ by coincidence is 1 in one hundred quadrillion, or stated another way, one in one hundred million billion. To illustrate such a large number, Professor Stoner suggests that we imagine covering the entire state of Texas with silver dollars. One hundred quadrillion silver dollars would cover Texas two feet deep! Now if we were to mark just one of those silver dollars, stir them all up and then blindfold a man and give him ONE CHANCE to pick the marked silver dollar from anywhere in the state he wished to travel, his chances of success would be one in one hundred quadrillion. Sounds like pretty impossible odds to me! And that is only considering the chances of fulfilling eight prophecies by chance. What would the odds be if all 300+ Messianic prophecies were taken into consideration? We would need a supercomputer to calculate those odds!
APP: As our Sunday School quarterly writer concluded, the only thing more remarkable than the fulfillment of messianic prophecy itself is the amazing number of people who willingly reject Scripture as the Word of God and Jesus Christ as the promised Messiah even though the Bible’s track record for prophetic fulfillment is 100%. Professor Stoner concludes, “Any man who rejects Christ as the Son of God is rejecting a fact proved perhaps more absolutely than any other fact in the world”. To say all these prophecies could be fulfilled by coincidence is a statistical impossibility!
CONCLUSION
Let’s make today’s message a little more personal. Isaiah. 7:14 said:
Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign.
This sign was originally given by Isaiah to the wicked king Ahaz as a way of trying to convince him to follow God’s direction at a critical time in the history of Israel. Have you considered the fact that this message may be a sign the Lord is giving to you? If you have been looking for a sign of God’s power, God’s love or God’s faithfulness, today the Lord has most definitely given a sign to you. The promised Messiah has been born. All the prophecies regarding Jesus’ birth have been fulfilled. Dare we doubt God’s ability and intention to fulfill all the prophecies we have in Scripture regarding the second coming of Jesus Christ? Dare we doubt God’s love or His understanding of our deepest needs? God will faithfully fulfill every promise He has ever made in Scripture to you and me in the same faithful way He fulfilled all these Messianic promises concerning the birth of His Son. We can trust the Lord to do what He says. Will you trust Him today?
PRAYER
INVITATION
God loves us so much that He sent us a personal Christmas present in the form of a tiny baby. Like any other baby born into this world, the baby Jesus grew into a man. But, unlike any man ever born into this world, Jesus was born from a virgin’s womb, lived a sinless life, willingly died upon a prophesied cross and was raised by God from the dead so our sins could be forgiven and heaven could become our eternal home.
All of God’s promises are fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. If you want God to meet your need for salvation or another need in your life, come and let God show you personally how faithfully He can fulfill His eternal promises as we begin to sing our invitation hymn.
