Is Jesus the predicted Messiah?
Luke 24:27 11/01/06
I want to do a series for our Wednesday night studies about a deeper walk with the Lord. How many of us would like a deeper walk in our life with the Lord Jesus? I am doing this on Wednesday nights because I believe you do desire a deeper walk with our Lord.
Now Jesus is walking with the two on the road that leads to Emmaus. Jesus has already been crucified, buried and resurrected. So this is the third day since His death and it says in Luke 24:27, “And beginning at Moses and the prophets.” Jesus began to teach the two from the Old Testament about Himself. That means that Jesus began in Genesis all the way to the book of Malachi giving Scripture about His coming and death. That means that Jesus was talking to them about Himself in the 39 books of the Old Testament. Can you imagine hearing the Scriptures from the lips of Jesus Himself?
Now let me tell you to start with the key to having a deeper life in the Lord Jesus is to love Him with all your heart and soul. The key to the church being what Jesus intends for it to be is to love Him and to love one another and to love lost people. With that being the key, how do you fall in these areas? Do you love Jesus with all your heart and soul? Do you love one another? Do you have a love for lost people enough to share with them the Gospel? If not, then in order to have a deeper walk with the Lord, these are three keys you must have. I just believe I am talking to some who have these as number one priorities.
Now we know that Peter denied Jesus before He was crucified and after the resurrection, Jesus was cooking breakfast on the shore when the disciples come ashore. Peter was with them and Jesus asked Peter a question. He said Peter do you love me? Would you say that Peter had backslide? Look at the way back to Jesus is to love Him like you use to love Him. That is what backsliding is, not loving Jesus like you use to love Him.
Some Scriptures that speak to this very thing is found in the book of the Revelation. There you find the letters to the churches in chapter 2 and 3. You find in the letter to the first church, the church of Ephesus Jesus talked about the things they were doing and most of them were good but Jesus said I have somewhat against you; you have left your first love. That means the church had a love for the Lord at one time but now did not love the Lord as they once had. The church was backsliding because it had left its first love.
Not to long in the future, I am going to do a series of messages on the churches found in the book of the Revelation. Every person needs three homes. You need a home for the family and that is after you leave the service. You need one for the future when you are out of this world and that is heaven. You need a home for your faith and that is the church. It is necessary for people to have 3 homes.
Now we get back to the Scripture we have read tonight and Jesus started in the book of Genesis and taught about Himself to the book of Malachi. Jesus is in every book of the Bible. There is more evidence that Jesus lived than there is that George Washington lived. In fact, there is more evidence that Jesus lived than there is any other person on the earth. There is one thing that is necessary to believe that Jesus lived and that is to believe the Bible. His life is found in the Scriptures and we have to believe the Scriptures to believe that He existed. To know Him is to believe the Bible and to believe the Bible is to love Him.
The first point I want us to talk about in our first study of a deeper walk with the Savior is THE MIRACULOUS PRESENCE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECY.
The very fact that the Old Testament makes predictions is a miracle. Prophecy is predicting some events in the future with absolute accuracy. Now I can make predictions of some things. I can say the sun is going to come up in the morning. You don’t have any trouble with that do you? I can say the sun is going to come up at a certain time. That is not hard to do if I can get the information about the sun rise. But If I say the sun is going to come up in the morning and after one hour it will turn as black as tar, then I have raised the stakes a little about my prophecy. Now you may go to questioning if I am really accurate in my prophecy.
In the Old Testament there are predictions made and they are very detailed. There are predictions given about nations. Some cities are prophesied about in the Old Testament. There are some people that were prophesied about before they were even born. So while there are only a few predictions that we can give with any accuracy at all, there are many in the Old Testament given with absolute accuracy. The fact is that we can’t predict tomorrow. The Bible says boast not thyself of tomorrow for you don’t know what tomorrow may bring forth. Yet in the Bible there are many given and with accuracy. There are many prophecies given in the Old Testament that happened hundreds of years later. The other religions cannot do this. The other religions cannot make predictions with any accuracy at all.
So we have in the Old Testament the miraculous presence of Old Testament prophecy. The next point I want us to think about is THE MANY PROMISES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECY. In this part of our study I want us to think of the many promises in the Old Testament predicting the coming of the Lord.
We are living in the computer age. I mean I just don’t see how we made it before there were computers. I mean Wal-mart and many other stores could not make it without computers. About every house you go into today has at least one computer.
In my computer, I have the entire Bible with many translations. I have several volumes of commentaries in this program that I am often going to for my study. It just amazes me when I am looking for a certain Scripture in the Bible. If I happen not to quote the Scripture right while in my search, the computer reads the entire Bible looking for the phrase I put in; it can read the Bible in about 10 seconds.
I am told there are 333 predictions in the Old Testament telling of the coming of the Lord either the first time or the second coming. I am told there are 224 predictions in the Old Testament telling of the first coming of the Lord. That means there are 109 predictions in the Old Testament telling about the second coming of the Lord. I mean for the Old Testament written hundreds of years ago talks of things that are yet to happen is just mind boggling.
What I want us to do is of course not to deal with all 224 of the predictions for that will take much time. We won’t even deal with the predictions that the Old Testament gives of the second coming but a few that dealt with the first coming of Jesus.
Let’s take for our study tonight eight predictions in the Old Testament telling of the first coming of the Lord. The first, it is predicted in the Old Testament that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, found in Micah 5:2. It was fulfilled in Luke 2:4.
The second one is that it was predicted the Messiah would be preceded by a forerunner. That was predicted in Malachi 3:1. That prediction was fulfilled in Matthew 11:10 in the person of John Baptist.
Number 3, it is predicted that the Messiah would enter Jerusalem riding on a donkey. Isn’t that something, not a horse, not a chariot but a donkey? That perdition was given in Zechariah 9:9 and it was fulfilled in Matthew 21:5.
Number 4, it we predicted that Jesus would be betrayed by a friend. That prediction was made in Zechariah 13:6 and fulfilled in Matthew 26:47-50 by Judas, one of His disciples.
Number 5, it was predicted in Zechariah 11:12 that the Messiah would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver. That was fulfilled in Matthew 26:15.
Number 6, it was predicted that the silver would be cast to the potter. That was predicted in Zechariah 11:13. That was fulfilled in Matthew 27:3-7.
Number 7, it was predicted that the Messiah would be silent in front of his enemies. That was predicted in Isaiah 53:7 and was fulfilled in Matthew 26:63.
Number 8, it was predicted that the enemies would cast lots for His clothing. That was predicted in Psalm 22:18. That was fulfilled in Matthew 27:35.
That is just 8 out of 224 predictions telling of His first coming. Some say that Jesus manipulated the events so they would happen just like the Bible read because He knew the Bible. That is about crazy when you think about. Can one manipulate his place of birth? I was floating around out in space and decided I would be born in Stokes County. When I was born, I was in such shock that I didn’t say a word for about 8 months.
Our last point for just a short while, I want us to think about THE MATHEMATICAL PROBABLITIES OF OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECY.
A few years ago a student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology did a study in which he tried to discover the mathematical possibilities of all the monkeys in Africa running over a typewriter and typing correctly all the books in the English language. I know, he needed something to do, but this kept him out of trouble. He came up with the position that it would take 1 in 10 raised to the 68 power , that means it would be a 10 with 68 zeros after it. I know, it doesn’t mean much to you and me either. Once you get by the fingers and toes, math is rough for me. But is has been said the possibilities of just these eight predictions coming to pass exactly as the Old Testament said they would, is a 10 with 17 zeros after it. Now of course when you add the rest of the 224 to it, it raises the possibility a great deal.
What I am saying folks is that you can depend on your Bible. If you and I want a deeper walk with the Lord Jesus, then read His book and to read His book is to know Him and to know Him is to love Him.
