THE ONLY TRULY EXPECTED MAN IN HISTORY, PART TWO

THE ONLY TRULY EXPECTED MAN IN HISTORY, PART TWO With grateful acknowledgement of these sources of direction and inspiration: the Holy Spirit; the Word of God; Norman Geisler, Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics; I. Howard Marshall, I Believe in the Historical Jesus; Josh McDowell, The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict. December 14, 2003 [Additional Notes] Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Introductory In his book, entitled The Incomparable Book, Wilbur Smith, the renowned writer and theologian, analyzed ancient cultures in search of their ideas about telling the future. Many civilizations had some form of divination, which is the practice of "divining" the future. The idea of divining was right in only one sense-that the ability to know what lay ahead in the future was the privilege only of God (the "divine"). But these cultures believed that certain people had the ability to search the mind of their god(s) and "divine" what the future held. As you can imagine, if the trickery were done well, it could be a lucrative practice, at least for awhile. Trouble is, no one could pull it off for long. Why? Very simple: no one got the future right. Even the very best guessers got maybe 1-2% right. "In the entire gamut of Greek and Latin literature, even though they used the words prophet and prophecy, can we find any real specific prophecy of a great historic event to come in the distant future, nor any prophecy of a Saviour to arrive in the human race . . . " "Mohammedanism cannot point to any prophecies of the coming of Mohammed uttered hundreds of years before his birth. Neither can the founders of any cult in this country rightly identify any ancient text specifically foretelling their appearance." But Jesus fulfilled over three hundred prophecies (spoken by different voices over five hundred years), including twenty-nine major prophecies fulfilled in a single day-the day He died. Although some of these may have found fulfillment in the prophet's own day, they found their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ. The fact is, Jesus was the only expected man in history! How could such accurate prophecies be in place literally hundreds of years before His birth, telling about exactly where He would be born, that He would be virgin conceived, all about His death, His burial and His resurrection? Easy-God set it all up! He sprinkled into the language and message of His prophets forecasts of the Messiah who was to come. They didn't know the full meaning of what they were speaking and writing at the time, but the God who inspired them did. Why did God do this? So that no one could ever possibly believe that Christmas was an accident. Preacher Bob Russell tells of a time some thirty years ago. There was a house near the entrance of our subdivision that kept their Christmas lights burning long after the season was past. They burned through January. Even through the first of February those outside lights burned every night. Finally, about the middle of February I became a bit critical and said, "If I were too lazy to take my Christmas lights down, I think I'd at least turn them off at night." But about the middle of March there was a sign outside of their house that explained why they'd left the lights on. It said simply, "Welcome home, Jimmy." We learned that family had a son in Vietnam, and they had unashamedly left their Christmas lights on in anticipation of his return. Lights are the symbol of hope. Prophets, priests, kings, angels and godly people lived hundreds and hundreds of years in anticipation of a coming Messiah-the anointed One, the Savior or the world. The prophecies of that coming One were the lights that kept hope alive. Last week I made the list of 61 major messianic prophecies available to you, and there are copies here today for those who missed them. I am providing these as a study and faith resource for you. Here is what I recommend - before you take this study home and lay it on the table or the desk where it might stay with other newspapers and mailers which will be gathered up next week, judged outdated and suitable for the trash, try this. I recommend that you get yourself a couple of file folders and label them "biblical studies"; stick this study in one of them and put them where you can find them later. [webmasters note: You can also perform a search of our website and find them again. Click here for our Search Page] We looked at four of the Old Testament prophecies of the coming Christ, and their fulfillment in the New Testament. This morning I'd like for us to study a couple more. Before we do that, though, let me review with you one of the reasons these prophecies are important: they help to prove to the honest doubter the divine nature and calling of Jesus Christ in human history. Peter Stoner (Science Speaks, Moody Press, 1993) wrote about just eight of the prominent Old Testament prophecies fulfilled in Christ. He determined the mathematical probability of just eight of these 61 prophecies being fulfilled by any one man in a lifetime: 1 in 10 (to the 17th power). That is 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000 (17 zeros) - (one hundred quadrillion). To get a better handle on that number, he suggested you could take that many silver dollars and lay them over the entire ground of the state of Texas; they would cover the entire state …two feet deep! Suppose you marked one of those silver dollars, blindfold a man and have him walk all around the state and choose only one silver dollar. What would be the chance of him picking the right one? Just the same chance that the prophets would have had of writing these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man, from their day to the present time, providing they wrote them according to their own wisdom. The prophets had just one chance in 10 (to 17th power) of having them come true in any man, but they all came true in Christ. This means that the fulfillment of these eight prophecies alone proves that God inspired the writing of those prophecies to a definiteness, which lacks only one chance in 10 (to 17th power) of being absolute. Isaiah 9:6-7 I picked this passage because of its popularity as a Christmas text. "For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder and His name 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, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this." Interestingly this text didn't make the list of Old Testament prophecies that you have. The reason is that there is not a single, clear New Testament passage that specifically says that something Jesus said or did is the fulfillment of that prophecy. Yet, no rational Christ-follower could deny that this text is a prophecy of the coming Christ. God lifts the veil of revelation of the future long enough to give Isaiah a glimpse of a royal child of hope who is to be born someday. Though God's people are at war at the time Isaiah prophesies, this child to be born, he says, will govern their nation, and the world, in a time of peace. According to verse 7, judgment and justice will prevail under the leadership of this future royal child. So powerful a figure is this child-become-king that one name is not enough to identify Him. To adequately describe His majesty, Isaiah had to heap up descriptive names like wonderful and counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace. The rule of His kingdom will be forever. Is there any doubt who this is, now that Christ has come and announced His plans for the world and the rest of history? Don't miss this. The prophet Isaiah spoke this word from the Lord more than 700 years before Gabriel visited Mary with the news of her baby. Again, God was going to send His Son, but, so there would be no confusion that God was in charge of history, He forecast it through His prophet, saying, "This is what I'm going to do. And I'm telling you in advance, so that you will know that I engineered this plan, and so that you will recognize that I am faithful and keep my promises." Believer, let Christmas, 2003, be a reminder to you that God is faithful. He is the Creator and sustainer of life, and you can trust the running of the world to Him. He is your father and you can trust the running of your world to Him. You don't need to panic when things seem to go wrong-He's got it all under control. Susan Smart wrote in Campus Life Magazine about being a student pilot on a solo flight in a Cessna 150. Somehow she had lost control and the plane started spinning wildly toward the earth. At first she panicked, but then remembered her training. The book said: "The Cessna 150 is designed to fly by itself. Just let go of the controls and it fly itself." In the middle of a spin it's hard to let go of the steering wheel. She kept telling herself, "Let go, let go!" It was hard, but she finally did. Sheer terror followed for the next few seconds and then the plane started to right itself and leveled off and everything was OK. When we are in scary situations we want to grip the wheel more tightly. God says, "Let go, I'm faithful. I'm on the throne. I can fly this thing." His promises are in the Book, and He will keep them. Isaiah 11:1-2 (8) Included in both of the New Testament genealogy lists of Jesus is the fact that He is descended from Jesse, the father of David (Matthew 1:6 and Luke 3:23, 32). Often the Messiah is viewed as the Holy Seed from the line of Abraham. Abraham received the promise from God that his descendants would be numberless, and that through his family would come blessing for the entire world. Jesse is his grandson. Though Jesse is never regarded as a central figure in the messianic lineage, other than being David's father and being in the tribe of Judah and living in Bethlehem. But God tells Isaiah to invoke Jesse's name in his prophecy of the coming Messiah. "There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots." (Isaiah 11:1) Though at the time Isaiah was prophesying, the nation of Judah looked doomed and possibly near extinction, Isaiah comforts the people by saying that even though Jesse's family line is like a dead stump of a tree long since cut down, God is going to work a miracle. Out of the lifeless stump, or stem, a new green shoot will rise-a fresh, living branch out of the seemingly lifeless roots. Verse two goes on to describe this One who will be the new Branch: "The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord." So the promised One will be filled with the Spirit of God in a multi-dimensional way. He will be wise with godly wisdom. We remember during Jesus' ministry those who saw Him work miracles would praise God, knowing it was the finger of God at work through Jesus. Often the people who heard Him teach would be "astonished" because He spoke with such authority. But notice the unique way Isaiah words this prophecy: "The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him…" I know you'll have no difficulty recalling the precise fulfillment of this word at the baptism of Jesus. "When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." (Matthew 3:16-17) In the record of Jesus' ministry, the Spirit of the Lord is inseparable from His character. When God calls a person to a divine mission, He endows that candidate with the presence of His Holy Spirit. Moses and David and Joshua and the judges of the Old Testament were endowed with the Holy Spirit to do the tasks to which God had called them. But nobody knew the anointing and power of the Holy Spirit like Jesus did. Isaiah 53 (39) One more prophetic message from the book of Isaiah. Look at chapter 53 for a minute. There in that chapter cluster several specific prophecies that found clear and unquestionable fulfillment in the ministry of Jesus as the Messiah. Seven centuries before it happened, the sufferings of Jesus were prophesied in alarming detail here in this chapter. Verse 7 says "He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth." The book of Matthew records the fulfillment - "And while he was being accused by the chief priests and elders, He answered nothing." (Matthew 27:12) Verse 5 includes the details, "…by His stripes we are healed…" The gospel writers describe vividly the beatings Jesus received at the hands of His tormentors. Verse six of Isaiah 50 pinpoints "I gave my back to those who struck me…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." Isaiah 53:12 says that the Messiah was "numbered with the transgressors." Matthew 27 and Mark 15 record that "two robbers were crucified with Him, one on the right and another on the left." [webmasters note: Matthew 27:38 , Mark 15:27] Verse 12 in Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah would make "intercession for the transgressors" and Luke 23:34 contains the record of Jesus' dying prayer, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do." Everything that Jesus will be inspired to do and say that fateful day during those excruciating hours of suffering and sacrifice was recorded 700 years earlier by God's prophet. God wanted us to know that He knew all that would happen to the Bethlehem baby thirty-three years after His momentous arrival on planet earth. Verse 4-6: "Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." Of course, the New Testament accounts of Jesus' suffering prior to and during the crucifixion bear witness to the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy. But, even more importantly, the reason the Messiah suffered is prophesied in this passage: for our transgression, for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace, and by His wounds we are healed. This Old Testament prophecy (again, given 700 years before Christ's birth) spells out in no uncertain terms that the suffering of the messiah was a substitution for our punishment. His suffering was in atonement for our sins. Several New Testament scriptures make this clear as well. For example, 1 Peter 2:24-25 - "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness, by his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls." It was May 21, 1946. The place - Los Alamos. A young and daring scientist was carrying out a necessary experiment in preparation for the atomic test to be conducted in the waters of the South Pacific. He had successfully performed such an experiment many times before. In his effort to determine the amount of U-235 necessary for a chain reaction--scientists call it the critical mass--he would push two hemispheres of uranium together. Then, just as the mass became critical, he would push them apart with his screwdriver, thus instantly stopping the chain reaction. But that day, just as the material became critical, the screwdriver slipped! The hemispheres of uranium came too close together. Instantly the room was filled with a dazzling bluish haze. Young Louis Slotin, instead of ducking and thereby possibly saving himself, tore the two hemispheres apart with his hands and thus interrupted the chain reaction. "By this instant, selfless act, he saved the lives of the seven other persons in the room. . . As he waited for the car that was to take him to the hospital, he said quietly to his companion, 'You'll come through all right. But I haven't the faintest chance myself' It was only too true. Nine days later he died in agony. Twenty centuries ago the Son of the living God walked directly into sin's most concentrated radiation, allowed Himself to be touched by its curse, and let it take His life. But by that act He broke the chain reaction. He broke the power of sin for you and for me. This is what the prophet said twenty generations before it happened. This is the reason Jesus left heaven and strapped on human limitations. He came in fulfillment of all the predictive prophecy so that He could be our Savior.   [Back to Top]