The Hope of Israel
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Welcome
Welcome
Good Morning! I’m Pastor Wayne and I’d like to welcome you all to the gathering of Ephesus Baptist Church.
Why do we gather? We gather to worship and exalt the name of our good and loving Lord, Jesus Christ. Let us join the host of heaven this morning as we worship our Lord from thankful hearts.
If you are visiting with us this morning, we want you to who we are here at Ephesus...
We are all one family of faith: “giving our all to love God, love people, proclaim Jesus, and make disciples in our generation.”
That is our mission, our purpose, why we exist as a church.
We have a connect card in the pew in front of you. I invite you to take one and fill it out! If you have prayer needs, you can let us know about those as well.
I promise, our prayer team will lift you up soon. You can place those cards in the offering plate when it comes around.
Who’s Your One?
Scripture Memory
Scripture Memory
38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Opening Scripture Reading
Opening Scripture Reading
26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth,
27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary.
28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”
29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.
30 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.
32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David,
33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”
35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.
36 And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren.
37 For nothing will be impossible with God.”
38 And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
39 In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah,
40 and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.
41 And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit,
42 and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!
43 And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
44 For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.
45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”
46 And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord,
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
49 for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.
50 And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.
51 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
52 he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate;
53 he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy,
55 as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”
56 And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home.
Prayer of Invocation
God of Grace and Glory, before Your throne we humbly come, seeking Your forgiveness for our feeble efforts to understand the magnitude and meaning of Christ’s birth and for our indifference toward the life that He lived and the death that He died. For the selfishness that pervades our time with other things, our minds with other thoughts, and our hearts with other loves.
Forgive us we pray. Grant in us a disposition to let Christ be born anew within each of our lives, creating in us a new hope-filled outlook full of peace, firmer convictions, and a fresh vibrant spirit to worship and serve.
Heal the wounds and scars left by misunderstanding, betrayal of trust, and evil deeds. Help those who have been wronged to forgive and those who have wronged to repent.
We pray for godly ambitions to rule our hearts. Lord we also pray for those who have no Christmas, and for those who think they are having Christmas, but have none because of hearts torn by hate, twisted by prejudice, crippled by pride, and betrayed by deceit.
We pray for faith, patience, and consolation to those whose homes are empty with the passing of loved ones. Tie these cares to our hearts, O God.
May Jesus be not only the reason for the season, but also the reason for all of our seasons of life. And it is in his matchless, strong name we pray, Amen.
Introduction
December is finally here! The beautiful month of December is the month we will gather with our family and friends to celebrate the incarnational birth of the Lord of all Creation. It is one of the most hoped for and hope filled months of the year.
Sometimes we forget just how great of an event the incarnation of Jesus Christ truly was!
The Incarnation was the supreme statement to all of mankind that it is only through the highest medium of our human flesh that the highest message of heaven could be given to us.
The birth of Jesus was not just any birth, mind you, it was the birth of the incarnate deity. The one in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells. He is the Holy Logos come down to earth to tabernacle in our midst so that we could behold the glory of God!
Christmas is the time that we celebrate that holy night when God came down to reconcile His sinful, lost and dying world unto himself.
Christmas represents a time of great hope. Over 2000 years ago, God opened a new chapter in human history as He made a way for His Spirit to dwell within humanity once again.
Ralph Sockman once said that,
“The hinge of history is on the door of a Bethlehem stable.”
There is so much truth to that statement!
It is Christmas in our hearts that puts Christmas in our air! It is that spirit of Christmas that fulfills one of the greatest hungers of mankind. The hunger for hope! Real hope!
This Holy Night we celebrate each year brings us so much love, peace, and joy. While the greatest thing is love, there is another gift that Christmas delivers that I want us to focus our attention on this Christmas season.
That great gift is the hope of Christmas.
Hope is one of the most powerful things in all the world. It is one of the three main elements of Christian character, joining faith and love in....
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
People cannot live without hope. Throughout history, human beings have endured the loss of many things. People have lost their health, their finances, their reputations, their careers, even their loved ones, and yet have endured and in many cases thrived.
Human beings can survive the loss of almost anything—but not without hope. Hope is what gets us from one day to the next.
When we are young, we go to school and hope that one day we will graduate. We graduate and hope that one day we will enter into a great career.
For many of us, when we were single, we hoped that perhaps one day we would meet the right person and get married. Then, when we got married we hoped that one day we would have healthy children.
Next, we end up hoping that we will live long enough to see our children go out on their own, be successful, get married, and produce grandchildren for us to enjoy. We live by hope!
When hope is gone, our zeal and joy, our strength and courage just evaporate. Life itself begins to fade. When hope dies, we begin to die on the inside each day. One of the most profound proverbs of the Bible says,
12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.
It could be argued that the problem is not that we don’t have hope—because we do—but that our hope has been misplaced.
From the time we are young, we begin investing our hopes into different things. As we get a little older (but not always wiser) we put our hope in wealth and status, achievement and prestige and power.
But two things happen when we place our hope in the wrong things. Either we never make it to the level we had hoped for, which leaves us envious or bitter.
Or we make it to that level only to discover that it doesn’t fill the void in our heart. In that case, we end up unfulfilled and disappointed.
Christmas is a reminder that we have something that we can put our hope in that does not fade away, someone who will never leave us unfulfilled and disappointed.
The Hope of Christmas is Jesus Christ!
The hope of Christmas serves as a reminder to us that everyday of the year is a day that can be lived in hope because the object of our hope is worth eternally more than anything this world can offer.
Christmas is a profound message of hope for those whose lives are filled with despair.
When we figure out that we are here by God’s grace and realize that our lives are designed to bring glory to God as we are conformed more and more into the image of the object of our hope, Jesus Christ, God infuses us with a sense of hope and encouragement.
We can then pass that same encouragement and hope on to others as we live out each day in light of Christmas.
The Hope of Israel
The Hope of Israel
No one lived out this hope any better than the Apostle Paul. In the last chapter of the book of Acts, we read these words:
17 After three days he called together the local leaders of the Jews, and when they had gathered, he said to them, “Brothers, though I had done nothing against our people or the customs of our fathers, yet I was delivered as a prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans.
18 When they had examined me, they wished to set me at liberty, because there was no reason for the death penalty in my case.
19 But because the Jews objected, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar—though I had no charge to bring against my nation.
20 For this reason, therefore, I have asked to see you and speak with you, since it is because of the hope of Israel that I am wearing this chain.”
Paul has made it to Rome! In chains and under prison guard, but he is there. He survived a shipwreck and a snake bite to get there, but He is in Rome!
Now normally his method of ministry was to go to the synagogue and preach first, then head out into the community. But this time, Paul, under guard and with great notoriety, called the Jewish leaders to come and see him and they did.
He explained to them why he wanted to see and speak with them in verse 20.
20 For this reason, therefore, I have asked to see you and speak with you, since it is because of the hope of Israel that I am wearing this chain.”
He explained to them that the reason he was in chains and they were not was because of his belief that Jesus was the Messiah.
When he used the phrase “the hope of Israel.” He was referring to Jesus as the Messianic fulfillment and realization of the promises God made to His people for their ultimate salvation.
Listen to what he said earlier to King Agrippa during his defense.
6 And now I stand here on trial because of my hope in the promise made by God to our fathers,
7 to which our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly worship night and day. And for this hope I am accused by Jews, O king!
Paul firmly believed that Jesus is the Messiah of Israel who will one day return and establish Himself as the King of Israel and Lord of the Nations.
Like the disciples asked in Acts 1:6, Paul is asking everyday of his life, but with a different hope attached to it.
6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
For Paul, Jesus was the Hope of Israel! Jesus was the hope of all life!
To his Jewish countrymen, Paul preached that one of whom all the prophets spoke, in whom all the promises of God must be fulfilled, in whom Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the saints of the Old Testament hoped and for whom they waited has come.
The long expected Messiah, the King, the Son of David, the Seed of Abraham, the true Prophet, the true Priest, the true Sacrifice, the true Redeemer of Israel. He has come, and He is Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, the Hope of Israel!
In the time we have remaining this morning, I want to highlight a few of the passages that were most likely on Paul’s mind as he pondered this Hope of Israel!
These are passages that the Jews, themselves, used as motivators of hope as they looked forward to the future Messiah!
1. The First Mention of Christmas. Genesis 3:15
1. The First Mention of Christmas. Genesis 3:15
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
This is the first promise given after Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. It’s also the first mention of Christmas in the Bible.
Theologians call it the proto-evangelium, or “first gospel.” These words spoken by God contain the earliest promise of redemption in the Bible.
Although you may not see it at first glance, Jesus Christ is in this verse. He is the ultimate Offspring or Seed of the woman who would one day come to crush Satan’s ugly head.
In the process His “heel” would be bruised and His body would be broken on the cross of Calvary. In short, this verse predicts that Jesus would come as the child of a woman and would eventually win the victory over Satan but would Himself be wounded in the process.
The reason for Christ’s birth, the revelation of Christ’s birth and the result of Christ’s birth are each spelled out in Genesis 3:15.
When Charles Wesley wrote “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing,” he included a verse based on Genesis 3:15 that beautifully describes Jesus as our Victor.
Our hymnal like many others omits this verse but I want to read it for you this morning.
“Come, Desire of Nations, come, Fix in us Thy humble home.
Rise the woman’s conquering Seed, Bruise in us the serpent’s head.
Adam’s likeness now efface, Stamp Thine Image in its place,
Second Adam from above, Reinstate us in Thy love,
Hark, the herald angels sing, Glory to the newborn King.”
2. Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus!
2. Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus!
Another Hymn by Charles Wesley speaks of the Hope of Israel.
Come, thou long expected Jesus,
born to set thy people free;
from our fears and sins release us,
let us find our rest in thee.
Israel's strength and consolation,
hope of all the earth thou art;
dear desire of every nation,
joy of every longing heart.
If you journey through the Bible, eventually you come to a man name Terah who has an offspring by the name of Abraham. God makes a promise to Abraham and this promise involves, among other things, seed.
But this promise to Abraham is rather significant because he and his wife, particularly his wife, are too old for seed. So how do you get promised seed if the seed bearing woman is too old for seed? The answer is God must intervene.
And remember if the God had not of shut Noah up in the Ark during the flood, none of this would be possible.
As we make our way through the Bible we see passages like Genesis 22, that reminds us that God is going to provide the Lamb for the atonement of our sins.
We read in Genesis 49:10 that one from the tribe of Judah will rule with a scepter gaining the people’s tribute and obedience.
10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
Listen to Numbers 24:17 tell us about a future star and a scepter.
17 I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near: a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel; it shall crush the forehead of Moab and break down all the sons of Sheth.
Moses clearly told Israel that a prophet greater than him was going to be raised up by God.
15 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—
When we come to David, we see him fighting the giant as the representative substitute for God’s people. He wins the victory over the giant, thereby winning victory on behalf of all of God’s people.
David becomes king and God identifies the “seed” again as Israel’s future “king,” who will sit on the throne of David forever.
12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.
13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
14 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men,
15 but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you.
16 And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’ ”
And great King David will eventually have a greater son sitting on the throne who is a greater king who is the Lion of the tribe of Judah!
The “seed” was somehow to combine the three offices of prophet, priest, and king, something no earthly man was even allowed to do in Old Testament times.
The New Testament opens up with a genealogy. And basically that genealogy screams: the God who made a promise in Genesis 3 has fulfilled that promise.
If that is not enough to convince us of the hope of Christmas, then God wanted to give us a few more reasons to find that hope.
3. Specifics about this future hoped for seed!
3. Specifics about this future hoped for seed!
The Seed will be born by a miraculous virgin birth.
14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
The New Testament teaches that Mary was the Virgin and Jesus was Immanuel, God with us!
23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).
Listen to Isaiah
6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
This child will be God and will usher in peace! Gospel presentation!
Isaiah 53 tells us how God is going to secure for His people their salvation.
Listen to Isaiah 53:5
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
Isaiah 61 tells us details about the mission of our Lord.
1 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
Jesus would read this Scripture in Synagogue of Nazareth in Luke 4 and say,
21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Later in the minor prophet Micah we read
2 But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.
Micah tells us that the pre-existent Christ will hail from the tiny, insignificant village of Bethlehem!
Conclusion:
Before we wrap things up this morning, I want to make sure you grasp the significance of predictive prophecy.
All of these prophecies were written down more than 500 years before they were fulfilled by Christ. This is no accident and it is certainly not a coincidence.
The Old Testament contains over three hundred prophesies concerning this coming Lord. Each and every one of them was fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
In Lee Strobel’s excellent book, “The Case for Christ,” he points out that the probability of just eight prophecies being fulfilled is one chance in one hundred million billion tries. Jesus nailed it on His first and only attempt.
Truly the Hinge of History is on the door of a Bethlehem stable. The Apostle Paul confirms this in Galatians 4:4-5, as he writes,
4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
Jesus Christ was the long expected Hope of Israel!
Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the Hope of Christmas for all the nations on earth!
Every true Israelite, every true believer, lives by faith in Christ in the hope and expectation of eternal life.
Does your hope in Him inspire and motivate you to live in Him and through Him?
Does your hope in Him make your marriage better and stronger as you strive to love as He loved?
Will your children see your hope in Him and strive to live righteous lives because of your hope becoming their hope?
Do we make decisions based on how we live our lives in light of the hope of Christmas?
Will our children seek to live lives of purity and honor in a world filled with immorality and dishonesty? Will we show them how because of our hope in Christmas?
Let these questions dwell in your hearts and minds this Christmas season. Measure the true quotient of hope in your own heart this season!
Join me in prayer and then we will worship with
Hymn No. 315
Room at the Cross
or
Hymn No. 77
Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus!