Jesus is Coming…As the Prophets Foretold
Intro:
It’s hard to believe that we are entering into the Christmas season already. It seems like summer just ended and already the lights are out and the decorations are hung and before we know it, Christmas morning will be here again. I love this time of the year. I can remember as a kid how long the wait for Christmas seemed.
First Snow Ill.
We were ready for Christmas when it came, we had been eagerly looking forward to it. I love the family traditions, I love the Christmas Carols, I definitely love the Christmas Cookies and other treats. I also love the Christmas story all the different characters and events that unfolded around the time of Christ’s birth. The single event that has changed the history of the world like no other, the coming of the Son of God to Earth and the circumstances that surrounded that birth are a story that never gets old for me. One of my frustrations as a youth pastor was not getting to preach during this time of the year. I would always get to preach the Sunday after Christmas when everyone else wanted a break and when the Christmas series was over and done with and there were about 9 people that showed up for church! So, I’m excited to begin this series for the next few weeks as we explore the story of Christmas and the meaning of the gift that God gave us on that first Christmas morning. My hope is that all of us will be ready for Christmas when it comes, that we will all eagerly look forward to it, that we can overcome the chaos and enjoy the celebration of God’s greatest work of love to us.
Over the next several weeks, we’re going to build up to Christmas morning by looking at the theme of “Jesus is Coming!” We’re going to look at the different meanings that that had for different people and what it is that he came to bring. We’re going to look at Mary, at the Shepherds, and at Simeon and Anna.
This morning, we’re going to start our series by looking at some people that we seldom associate with the story of Christmas, the prophets. It was the prophets that told us where to look and under what conditions the Messiah would be born. It was the prophets who pointed through the years of history to that one morning in Jerusalem and the message that they had to share about that first Christmas morning was how the world wouls forever be changed. And in the birth of that little child was found the fulfillment of these prophet’s words that were centuries old. Jesus is Coming, As the Prophets foretold.
I. Who They Were:
I want to begin our look at the prophecies and the prophets who made them by looking at who they were, clarifying what exactly a prophet of God is and what role they are called on by God to play. The prophet was a person who was selected by God and appointed by God to speak a message to the people. He was God’s spokesman to God’s people.
He was not a priest. A priest in those days was the mediator between God and His people. He was God’s people’s spokesman before God. It was more of a position. A prophet was more of a function, a unique calling to be the deliverer of God’s words to His people. The prophets central function was to be God’s mouthpiece.
The prophet was to speak the words of God, just as he was given, to the people God sent him to.
JER 1:5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."
“Ah, Sovereign LORD," I said, "I do not know how to speak; I am only a child."
But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, `I am only a child.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. 8 Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you," declares the LORD.
Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, "Now, I have put my words in your mouth
There is little room for doubt after reading God’s call to Jeremiah, who did the sending and where the words of the prophet came from. The purpose of the prophet was to deliver a message from the one True God.
As you search through the words of God’s prophets in Scripture, you see many themes that pop up again and again. The prophets message was to:
- Encourage Obedience
- Turn People towards repentance
- Warn of Judgement from God
- To encourage Trust in God, Remind that God was in Control
- Always give Hope.
Their job was not an easy one and they were not always welcomed with open arms because of the message they were asked to bring. When the prophet Samuel arrived in Jerusalem to anoint David as king, we’re told that the people trembled when they saw him. Often the message of the Lord was not a pleasant one to hear and the people assumed that God was displeased with the way they were living when they saw a prophet approach. So, the role of prophet could be a tough and a lonely one because of the message you were asked to bring.
The Bible also talks of many false prophets, those who claim to have a word from the Lord when in reality it is not God’s message they are bringing. Scripture tells us that the role of the false prophet is to turn God’s people away, to distract them and to mislead them away from what God is asking them to do. So, God gives us clear instructions as to what a true prophet will look like and what his message will contain.
These are the tests of a prophet:
A. Speak in the name of the Lord:
DT 18:17-19 The LORD said to me: "What they say is good. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account
A prophet is aware of who it is that the message comes from and will speak boldly and with conviction maker those who hear aware that it is the Lord who is speaking.
B. His prophecies must be fulfilled
Deut 18:22 If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.
It makes sense that if a prophet is truly speaking the Lord’s words, that they will come true. Now for some of these prophets, they spoke of immediate judgment, for others it was a judgment to come or it was an event that would occur many years down the road, but as we look at Biblical prophecy, we can be assured that these men spoke from God because we can see the fulfillment in the historical records as time has passed, we can see the incredible accuracy of the words the prophets spoke.
C. His prophecies must be in agreement with all previous prophesy (most important)
DT 13:1 If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a miraculous sign or wonder, 2 and if the sign or wonder of which he has spoken takes place, and he says, "Let us follow other gods" (gods you have not known) "and let us worship them," 3 you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 It is the LORD your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him.
A prophet may claim to speak God’s words and his words may come to pass, but if the words he speaks do not fall into line with the rest of God’s commands and with what has always been the cry of the prophet to return to God and to love him, if his message differs from this, then he is not a prophet. God’s words will always be consistent with each other. That is the true test of a Biblical prophet, when all of these things are true.
If you look in the index of your Bible you can find the books that Christ referred to when He would quote from the prophets. Stories of prophets are found in Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings, as well as other references to prophets in some other books, but the major books of prophesy are Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. Then the books of Hosea-Malachi are known as the minor, or lesser prophets, simply meaning that we don’t have as much of their words and writing. So, that is who the prophets were, God’s spokesmen to His people, called by Him, sent by Him, and given His message to share.
II. What They Said
The Prophets had much to say and reading them is really fascinating as you can see where their words came true and how God fulfilled their prophecies. There are literally hundreds of fulfilled prophecies in the Scriptures.
One of the most prophesied about events was the coming of the Messiah, his birth, the life He would live, and the death he would die. Jesus fulfilled every prophesy concerning the coming Messiah, over sixty major prophecies, each written more than 400 years before his birth. Could some of these have been a fluke, sure, there were other Jews born to the same bloodline that was prophesied about, but for one man to fulfill all of them, that man would have to be the Messiah.
Josh McDowell cites a study that was done by Professor Peter W. Stoner in an analysis that was reviewed and pronounced to be sound by the American Scientific Affiliation. He states that the probability of just eight of these prophecies being fulfilled in one person is 1 in 10 to the 17th power. That’s one in a 1 with17 zero’s after it.
Josh explains it this way.
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.
It’s nearly impossible and incomprehensible to think that Christ could have fulfilled these 8 prophecies. He went further and fulfilled 60 major prophecies, absolutely impossible unless He is truly the Son of God, the Messiah of the Old Testament. The One God was pointing to to save His people from their sins.
God wanted us to recognize His Son when he came. And so He gave us specific prophecies concerning that first Christmas morning so that there would be no question about who the baby was that was lying in the manger. The prophecies came from the prophets Isaiah and Micah. This was their message.
Isaiah 7-14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
A. How He Would Arrive
Isaiah tells us that the Messiah would be born of a virgin. There is great significance to the manner of his birth. Today, many evangelicals, people who claim they love God and believe his Word, are downplaying the importance of a virgin birth. This is a teaching that is hard for the non-christian to understand so there are those who say we should focus on other aspects of the Christmas story and leave room that maybe Jesus wasn’t born of a virgin. My friends, if you take away the virgin birth then you are left with just another man, no different than you or I. Christ would no longer fulfill one of the major prophecies of the Messiah and therefore could not be who he claimed to be. 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, that gives him His divinity. To deny the virgin birth is to strip Christ of His divine nature, it is to deny that he was God. He was both God and man. He had to be man in order to die and God in order to carry the burden of our sins and conquer death once and for all. The prophets proclaimed this virgin birth and the gospels confirm that Christ was the fulfillment of that prophecy.
B. Who He Was
Immanuel, Isaiah makes it clear who this child that is to be born will be. He says that He will be Immanuel, which is literally translated, God with us. This was to be God, taking the form of a human and dwelling with man. God had always interacted with man through his priests, but for the first time in history, God was leaving His throne in heaven and making His home here on Earth to dwell with His Creation and man would see what God is like and who He is through an example that we can understand, a flesh and blood man. The child was to be called Immanuel.
C. What He would be to the People
ISA 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.
Isaiah gave us a picture of some of the roles that this baby would play in the lives of His people. These are all roles that have an effect an impact on our lives and our relationship with Christ today.
a. King
Reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom. As we’ll see in a moment, it was this claim that caused many to miss the coming of the Messiah because He did not meet their expectations of a king. We know that Christ’s kingdom has been established and is growing here on Earth and that ultimately it will be established for eternity in the last days, but the Jewish people were looking for an Earthly king to return them to their glory days under King David.
b. Comforter
Wonderful Counselor. Isaiah says He will be one who understands and can encourage and advise.
c. God
Mighty God. Isaiah again points out that the Christ child will hold within him all of the qualities and characteristics of God, He will be God in all his might and majesty.
d. Eternal
Everlasting Father. Again, Isaiah speaks of the divinity of Christ. God is trying to make sure that there will be no doubt that child is indeed Immanuel.
e. Will Bring Peace
Of the increase of His government and peace, there will be no end. The Jews again figured that the Messiah would usher in an Earthly time of peace and deliver them from their captivity. But Isaiah was talking about the peace that Christ would bring between God and Man. He would restore the relationship that God had created us to have with Him and His eternal heavenly kingdom will be a place of peace like one that we will never know on this Earth.
All of these roles would be fulfilled in this little baby boy born in a manger that first Christmas morning.
D. Where He will Arrive
God spoke through the prophet Micah to let us know exactly where this Christmas morning was going to take place. God was again making sure that His gift would not go unnoticed.
MIC 5:2 "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah,
out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times. "
The Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, a small, insignifigant town outside of Jerusalem. This would be like the president and his wife choosing to come to Gang Mills to have a baby, it’s not the kind of place you expect would expect the most influential man ever to be born in. Yet, this little town would be the site of the most amazing event in all of history and Micah foretold of that centuries beforehand. The name of the town held significance, Bethlehem literally means house of bread, and the Messiah who was born in that town would call himself the bread of Life and claim that those who followed Him would never go hungry again and would be fed spiritually. So , the prophets gave us the place he would be born, the way he would be born, and the roles that this baby would grow into they gave us a glimpse into the events that would unfold in the Christmas story that we read in the Gospels of the New Testament. The prophets had spoken, and then they went silent.
From Malachi to Matthew, God chooses not to speak through man to His people. This is a tough time for the Jews and is crucial to understanding the third thing I want to look at this morning, how the message of the prophets was received.
III. How that Message was Received
Jesus sums up the response of the Jewish people to the words of God’s prophets.
MT 5:11 "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
MT 23:37 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.
The Jews had a history of mistreating and ignoring the words of the prophets. So, often they missed out on the blessings of God because they failed to listen to his prophets. With something as important as this, the coming of the Messiah, you would think that the Jews would be watching and waiting and that they could not miss what God had gone to great lengths to prepare them for. Yet once again, they missed it. The Messiah God sent looked nothing like the Messiah they were hoping and waiting for. To understand how they missed it you need to know a little about the times and the history of what had gone on during this time between the testaments, between Malachi and Matthew.
God, who had always spoken to the Jews through the prophets, had gone silent for a very long period of time. From the last words of Malachi until the birth of Christ, a period of over 400 years, God had not spoken to His people through one of his mouthpieces. The Jews were confused and oppressed and no longer sure of their place in the world. Had God abandoned them or was He waiting for just the right time to reveal himself and his plan for his people.
During that time of silence, history had seen much happen.
- Alexander the Great had risen to power and befriended the Jews. The Jews had seen firsthand the strength of leadership that Alexander offered his people and many had flocked to Alexandria to live and study and enjoy the benefits of Alexander’s kingdom.
- At the end of Alexander’s Kingdom, Jerusalem was invaded and overrun by Antiochus IV from Syria. Antiochus banned the Jews from observing the law, that was the only way the Jews had to be near to God was to obey the law and follow the ritual system of sacrifices and offerings. Antiochus forbid them to do this and he desecrated the holy temple. The Jews were waiting for God to intervene, yet he remained silent.
- Then Jerusalem was invaded by Herod the Great. After a long and bloody battle that cost many Jews their lives, he continued their religious persecution and declared himself the new God of Jerusalem. The Jews were to obey and follow His laws and ways and to worship him alone. And still, the Jews waited for their Messiah, their deliverer. Surely God would not allow this to continue, surely He would send His son to conquer and deliver them from all that they had endured. And still God was silent. Do you know what that feels like in your own life? You wait for God to move or to act and it seems as though He is no longer there. Well, as the Jews waited, He was moving, but not in the way that any of them could have hoped or imagined. All of these events were taking place without a fresh word from God, and then the silence was broken with the cry of a newborn child.
God broke the silence with a baby, born of a virgin, a baby born of a carpenter in a manger in a hole in the wall town. The Jews were saying “God, we need a deliverer to deliver us now! We need an Alexander or an Antiochus, or a Herod, someone who is mighty and can lead us to victory and restore our rightful place of prominence in this world.” We need the Messiah to come. And come He did, just as the prophets predicted. Not in might and power, but in weakness and humility. God had sent a deliverer, not to deliver the Jews from the powers of that day but for something much more than that. To deliver all people from the power of sin that we might be free from the law and enjoy life with God forever, that was why the Messiah came. And for many of the Jews, they missed it. They missed what they had been waiting for and longing for because it didn’t come in the package they expected.
Ethan and Catherine Illustration
Ethan was waiting and expecting with certainty. He would not even entertain the notion that things may not happen how he expected them to. That’s the way most of the Jews were when it came to the Messiah.
The Messiah had come to bring something that Israel had not seen in a long time, he came to bring them blessing, and they missed it, we’ll be talking more about that next week. Jesus had come, not in the way that they thought he should, but in the way God had said he would, just as the prophets foretold.
I want to conclude by reminding us all of three simple things.
1) There is still a message to Proclaim – Jesus is coming
Like the prophets of old who pointed towards that glorious day when the Messiah would come, there is still a day to come when Christ will return for His people and that message needs to be told.
2) There is still a need for prophets to proclaim it – You and I
We are God’s spokesmen today. The prophets of old waited upon God for His words. We have His words readily available to us in Scripture. We have the Truth and know the hope for eternity lies in a relationship with Jesus Christ and we are the ones that God has chosen to proclaim this message.
3) Still a world who is looking for salvation and desperately needs to hear the message.
Like the nation of Israel, so many are in bondage, so many are oppressed and need to know that the deliverer has come. Salvation is here. He arrived on that first Christmas morning so many years ago and there is a world out there that needs to know that. Make sure that this Christmas season, you take the time to share with someone that life changing message of a child who came just as the prophets foretold.
