2023-12-17 - Christmas 4

Revealing The Christ Child

Intro:

Darkness, I used to be scared of it. It doesn’t bother me much anymore at all. But we can get hurt in it, we need direction and caution and hope of seeing light again don’t we. M

Tell story of meeting with Pastor Bullock from Union Baptist in St. “J”

Black and Blue eyes, cut across nose. Walking down steps in dark and thought he was on the cement floor but there was one mores step

Hands full of stuff

For a split second he was flying like Superman

Then he finally found the cement floor but only after making contact with his bench

Wife takes him to urgent care as blood gushing out of bridge of nose and out of his nostrils

Link:

Again we might like the dark but we always look forward to seeing the light again, b/c there is hope, we can live in the darkness of certain moments. But when we are thinking of Spiritual things, we never want to live in darkness, we want to live in the light of the TRUTH OF GOD.

Talking Point:

If you recall, once per month It is my desire for us to look at a different Bible Doctrine, to better understand what and why we believe about God’s Word.

Last month we looked at General Revelation - God revealing Himself through creation, & human conscience.

Today were gonna be looking at Special Revelation: Special revelation refers to God revealing Himself to humanity through historical events, His Word, and through Jesus Christ. Through special revelation, human beings learn about God’s character, His will, His purpose for creation, and His plan of redemption. Special revelation shows us the nature and character of God, and because God has revealed Himself in this way, we can know Him through a saving relationship with Him in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Historical Events

There are many historical events that we can see that God used to Reveal Christ.

I mentioned last week that one book and part of one study in CDI (there are other books out there too that touch on this subject) is the fact of “Christ on Every Page” of Scripture. Everything in Scripture points to Christ, it leads to Christ.

In Exodus, we see the Story of Moses lifting up the brazen serpent and it is a way of point folks to Christ. John 3:14–15 “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” This is seen time and time again all through the Bible, that brings us to point #2

Historical Events - Documented in His Word

All of God’s Word, the Bible is pointing to Christ.

Special revelation is the teaching about God and his works that he has given to us through the prophets and apostles and which is now contained primarily or exclusively in the Bible. - Logos Factbook

It’s all pointing to Christ, all the historical events were documented by Gods 40 faithful men in what we have today, the Bible. One such example is:

John 12:32 “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” Which He did and we see this through the story of His crucifixion, burial & resurrection.

Historical Events - Documented in His Word - About Jesus Christ

Let’s take some time to look into some of these passages:

The Seed of the Woman - Genesis

Genesis 3:15 “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.”

After cursing the physical serpent, God turned to the spiritual serpent, the lying seducer, Satan, and cursed him. - McArthur

Luke 1:34–35 “Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” 35 And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.”

The Passover Lamb - Exodus

Exodus 12 - Instructions on the Passover Lamb

John 1:29 “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

The Lord Who Is Our Shepherd - Psalm

Psalm 118:22 “The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone.”

Christ was the rejected stone by the Jewish leaders. The Jewish leaders were pictured as builders of the nation. - McArthur

I hope you don’t reject Him too. I hope you have accepted Him as Savior and continue to put your trust in Him.

Matthew 21:42–43 “Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord’s doing, And it is marvelous in our eyes’? 43 “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it.”

I’m Glad that our Salvation wasn’t dependent upon mans approval.

The Suffering Servant - Isaiah

Isaiah 50:6 “I gave My back to those who struck Me, And My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard; I did not hide My face from shame and spitting.”

Matthew 26:67 “Then they spat in His face and beat Him; and others struck Him with the palms of their hands,”

Jesus was submissive to His Fathers will, again we have much to be thankful, if He would have disobeyed His Father, we wouldn’t have a Father in Heaven.

The Forgiving God - Jonah

Jonah 1:17 “Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”

Matthew 12:40 “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

The Pierced Son - Zechariah

Zechariah 9:9 “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.”

Matthew 21:6–9 “So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them. 8 And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: “Hosanna to the Son of David! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ Hosanna in the highest!”

The Messiah - Matthew

The Son of David - Matthew 1:1 “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham:”

From the very first words of his Gospel, Matthew recorded his central theme and character. Jesus Christ is the main character in Matthew’s presentation, and the opening verse connected Him back to two great covenants in Jewish history: the Davidic (2 Sam. 7) and the Abrahamic (Gen. 12; 15). If Jesus of Nazareth is the fulfillment of these two great covenants, is He related to the rightful line? This is a question the Jews would have asked, so Matthew traced Jesus’ lineage in detail. - BKC

The King of the Jews - Matthew 2:2 “saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.”

The Son of Man - Luke

The Horn of Salvation Luke 1:69 “And has raised up a horn of salvation for us In the house of His servant David,”

The Horn in the OT was a symbol of strength

The Son of God - John

The Lamb of God John 1:29 “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

The Blessed Hope - Titus

The Blessed Hope & The Great God and Saviour Titus 2:13 “looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,”

The coming Christ at His second coming.

The God our Saviour - Jude

Jude 25 “To God our Savior, Who alone is wise, Be glory and majesty, Dominion and power, Both now and forever. Amen.”

Victory over apostasy is found in Jesus Christ! - BKC

The King of Kings & The Lord of Lords - Revelation

The Word of God - Revelation 19:13 “He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.”

As we can see, Christ is on every page, He is in every book. All things in Scripture point to Him, to lift Him up.

Special revelation, there is much that point to Christ and Even Christmas and the whole encapsulated story of His birth is part of Special Revelation.

We can trust Him, the Bible b/c not only is He God, but He has proved Himself and Christ as Lord.

Closing Song: 100 O Come, All Ye Faithful