Jesus Predicted

Introduction

Over the next few weeks we are going to take a break from our study in the book of Romans, to celebrate Advent—better known as the Christmas Season.

Before we begin, I want to mention that we are beginning a new study during our Sunday evening service. We are going to be looking at studying God’s Word for yourself.

I was reading this week and found a wonderful quote from Alistair Begg. He writes:

In the Old Testament, we have Jesus predicted. In the Gospels, we have Jesus revealed. In Acts, we have Jesus preached. In the Epistles, we have Jesus explained. In the Revelation we have Jesus expected.

This certainly applies to why we study the entire Bible.

But it also applies to our Christmas study! During this Christmas season, we are going to look at how all of Word of God shows Jesus.

Jesus predicted in the Old Testament.

Jesus revealed in the Gospels.

Jesus preached in the book of Acts.

Jesus is explained in the Epistles.

And Jesus expected in the book of Revelation.

Jesus In The Old Testament

Today, we are going begin by looking at a few of the passages in the Old Testament that announce God’s plan for His future redemption.

Now, this study will be a little bit different than our normal studies, where we examine one passage. We will be looking at several passages. So if you have your Bibles, turn with me to our first passage. Isaiah chapter 7. And we’ll begin with verse 14.

So let’s begin.

Isaiah 7:14

Isaiah 7:14 NIV

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

Now if you look at the context, you will find that this prophecy was originally given to Ahaz. God told Ahaz that the northern kingdom of Israel would NOT overpower Judah. Isaiah went on to tell Ahaz to keep calm and don’t be afraid. After all these two “smoldering stubs of firewood”—Rezin and Aram would not prevail. In fact, Isaiah tells Ahaz that within 65 years, the northern kingdom would not even be a recognizable people.

He then tells Ahaz to trust in the words God had given to Isaiah, and even tells him to ask for a sign. But Ahaz refuses to ask for a sign, so God gives him one anyway—in the verse that we just read.

The prophecy:

The Lord—Yahweh—Himself will give Ahaz (and the people) a sign.

A virgin will be with child. In the context the word translated “virgin” could be translated young woman, marriageable woman. It was generally used to describe a young unmarried woman that was of marriageable age.

This young woman (virgin) will become pregnant and will give birth to a son.

And the child’s name will be Immanuel—which means God with us.

The prophecy Understood

There are at least three ways this prophecy could be interpreted.

The first view suggests that shortly after Isaiah wrote the prophecy, a young woman conceived, married and then gave birth to a baby boy, and before he was old enough to know the difference between good and evil the northern Aram-Israel alliance was destroyed. Scholars suggest that when Isaiah gave the prophecy the woman was a virgin but married shortly after and conceived a son by her new husband.

The second view holds that this prophecy had NO fulfillment in its day, and is ONLY a messianic prediction. Thus the virgin is Mary, the mother of Jesus.

The third view is that this prophecy is a Then/Not Yet Prophecy. Meaning that there was an actual fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah’s day, when the Aram-Israel alliance was broken. Then the prophecy was also fulfilled centuries later—and the Holy Spirit led Matthew to quote Isaiah 7:14 applying it to Mary (i.e. a boy would be born to a woman who was still a virgin).

There are actually a number of Then/Not Yet Prophecies. Conservatively there are 22 such prophecies identified in the book of Isaiah.

I believe the third option is the best for interpreting this passage.

Scripture Interprets Scripture

One of our Hermetical principals is that Scripture is used to interpret Scripture. This is the case for all the passages that we are going to look at today.

So let’s look at the Scriptures used to interpret Isaiah 7:14.

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign—This is used in Luke 2:12

Luke 2:12 (NIV)

This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Then we have: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

This was repeated in Matthew 1:23

Matthew 1:23 (NIV)

“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

Isaiah 9:6-7

Isaiah 9:6–7 NIV

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 greatness 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.

5 Things About the Coming Messiah

He will come into this world as a baby. The implication is that He will actually be born into the Nation of Israel.

He will rule over God’s people, and He will rule over the entire world.

He will have four descriptive names that will demonstrate His character:

Wonderful—Heb. exceptional, distinguished.

Counselor—People will listen to Him as He teaches God’s ways.

Mighty God—Some have suggested that this means He will be “god-like.” But in 9:2-5, Isaiah has already talked about the Messiah doing what no other person can do—so Isaiah understood that in some sense of the word the Messiah would be God.

Everlasting Father—This causes some to struggle with this idea. How can Jesus, the Son be the “everlasting Father?”

First, He is eternal (cf. John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”). So everlasting Father is used to describe time rather than position.

Jesus is a part of the Trinity and is therefore, GOD! So He possesses all of the attributes of God.

Finally, the term Everlasting Father is used to describe the “future” eternality of time. So the Messiah will be seated on David’s throne, and His rule will have no end (cf. Revelation 11:15, “The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: 'The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever.'”

Prince of Peace—So Jesus, the Messiah, is the one who will bring peace into the world—especially during the millennial reign. And He is the one who will maintain peace when the nation of Israel relates to the Lord properly.

Isaiah sees the Messiah seated on David’s throne (Luke 1:32-33). He will have an everlasting rule of peace and justice. When the kingdom of earth is over, He will rule for eternity in heaven.

Finally, the Messiah will have a fervor for advancing the Lord Almighty.

Scripture Interprets Scripture

There are a number of passages that connect to verse 7.

There is a loose quote in Luke 1:32-33.

Luke 1:32–33 (NIV)

He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

Then there is Revelation we have another veiled reference.

Revelation 11:15 (NIV)

The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever.”

Micah 5:2

So one of the big questions that the Old Testament scholars wanted to know, or tried to figure out was, where would the Messiah be born.

Micah 5:2 NIV

“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.”

When you read this verse in it’s context one might wonder how this applies to the Messiah.

To understand how this applies, you must look at how it is used in the New Testament.

Scripture Interprets Scripture

In Matthew, in the part of the story of the birth of Jesus, the Magi came from the east and went to King Herod to worship the new king of the Jews.

But, instead of finding Herod over joyed by the birth of the new king we read in Matthew 2:3

Matthew 2:3 NIV

When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.

that Harod was disturbed. Why? Because there was no new king born—at least not one that Harod knew about.

So when you come to verse 4, we read:

Matthew 2:4–5 NIV

When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

And then they quote from Micah 5:2, and the first part of 5:4.

Micah 5:2–4 (NIV)

“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”. . .He will stand and shepherd his flock. . .”

This passage was known by the Jewish chief priests and the teachers of the law, that when Harod asked them about it they replied by quoting Micah 5.

SO WHAT?

We began this study with a quote from Alistair Begg In that quote, he says that the Old Testament predicted Jesus’ coming.

Today we looked at three passages: two in Isaiah and one in Micah that predicted Jesus.

Today we saw that these three passages predicted three things about Jesus:

We learned about His the Uniqueness of His conception.

We learned about His Mission here on earth.

And finally, we learned where He would be born.

All three of these were revealed in the Old Testament and then repeated in various forms in the New Testament.

God chose to reveal His plan to draw all of man back to Him through the Old Testament. This was an amazing task, because it took more than 35 human authors to accomplish and spanned more than 2,000 years. All to reveal God’s magnificent plan to redeem mankind!

A child, born in Bethlehem! Born of a virgin. The Messiah who would bring salvation to the Jews, but more than that, He would be the Savior of the world—of ALL humanity!

Old Testament predicting the Messiah—the Savior of the World!