The Born Prophecy
The Born Series • Sermon • Submitted
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Merry Christmas! As we come to Advent 2020, I for one am grateful we end the year with Christmas. :) What a blessing because it focuses our hearts on what this time of year really is about, the birth of our Savior, Messiah, the Hope of the World.
Perfect Illustrations: For Every Topic and Occasion Prophecy: Really Bad Predictions
In a recent article in The Futurist magazine, writer Laura Lee catalogues some of the worst predictions of all time:
“Inventions have long since reached their limit, and I see no hope for further developments.”—Roman engineer Julius Sextus Frontinus, A.D. 100
“The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon.”—John Eric Ericksen, surgeon to Queen Victoria, 1873
“Law will be simplified [over the next century]. Lawyers will have diminished, and their fees will have been vastly curtailed.”—journalist Junius Henri Browne, 1893
“It doesn’t matter what he does, he will never amount to anything.”—Albert Einstein’s teacher to Einstein’s father, 1895
“It would appear we have reached the limits of what it is possible to achieve with computer technology.”—computer scientist John von Neumann, 1949
“The Japanese don’t make anything the people in the U.S. would want.”—Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, 1954
“Nuclear powered vacuum cleaners will probably be a reality within ten years.”—Alex Lewyt, president of the Lewyt Vacuum Cleaner Company, quoted in The New York Times, June 10, 1955
“Before man reaches the moon, your mail will be delivered within hours from New York to Australia by guided missiles. We stand on the threshold of rocket mail.”—Arthur Summerfield, U.S. Postmaster General under Eisenhower, 1959
“By the turn of the century, we will live in a paperless society.”—Roger Smith, chairman of General Motors, 1986
“I predict the Internet … will go spectacularly supernova and in 1996 catastrophically collapse.”—Bob Metcalfe, InfoWorld, 1995
Aren’t you glad your faith does not rest on human words but on the sure Word of God?
Citation: The Futurist, (September/October, 2000), pp. 20–25
There are so many prophecies about the birth and coming Messiah in the Old Testament. We are going to look at one in particular this morning and a few other passages as we prepare for Christmas.
In our world today, and in every age that has been or will be, that as Christians, we need not fear, but always have hope. Abiding in Jesus keeps HOPE alive, even in the most difficult of days, and trying times.
God’s renewed promise about the Messiah’s birth could hardly have come at a better time. Times were tough, and the outlook grim for the people of God.
Jeremiah was still in jail, and is known as the lamenting/weeping prophet. Jerusalem is being attacked by the Babylonians. Nebuchadnezzer and his armies are on the move against Jerusalem and destroy it. It was happening just as Jeremiah told the people it would happen. Jeremiah is heartbroken because the people were not listening to God’s message.
The land is going to be laid to waste. Jeremiah 33:10a. The people would look around and see a wasteland. They might simply something like, “wow, what a waste.”
But God had something else in mind. With God, all things are possible, and what is possible is His plan which we don’t always get to know exactly what His plan is.
“The Lord who made the earth, the Lord who forms it to establish it, the Lord is his name, says this:
Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and incomprehensible things you do not know.
He told Jeremiah of GREAT AND INCOMPREHENSIBLE THINGS YOU DO NOT KNOW. There…right there…is HOPE!
The Word to Jeremiah can summarized like this:
33:11 - “For I will restore the fortunes of the land as in former times, says the LORD.”
With these words, God promised a reversal of fortunes for His people. Mercy and Grace were coming, Peace and safety would return to His people.
33:11 - Weddings would happen again
33:12 - The flocks of sheep will once again pass under the shepherds hand, the one who counts them out in the foothills...
All these signs point a sign of peace. Weddings point to a secure future, farming and grazing of animals means the soldiers have put down their weapons and taken up the staff and can once again shepherd their sheep.
Jeremiah 33:14-16 now point us to how God will restore with a Prophecy of Hope with a Royal Promise
A Prophecy of Hope with The Good Promise
A Prophecy of Hope with The Good Promise
The good promise is in reference to the GOOD KING!
Verse 14 - There is hope - Hope is always forward looking, and so the prophecy begins with these sweet words to those who are in trouble -
“Look the days are coming...” - in trouble, they had something to look forward too.
There is hope because it is the LORD’s declaration.
Hebrews 6:17-19
Because God wanted to show his unchangeable purpose even more clearly to the heirs of the promise, he guaranteed it with an oath,
so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to seize the hope set before us.
We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain.
What is the Good Promise which brought Hope?
Jeremiah 33:15-16a
In those days and at that time I will cause a Righteous Branch to sprout up for David, and he will administer justice and righteousness in the land.
In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely, and this is what she will be named: The Lord Is Our Righteousness.
Those days and at that time - That is what the Paul writes “when fullness of time came” Galatians 4:4
But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law,
What time is that? In the days and time Jeremiah had just described. The Messiah would come when some semblance of peace had been restored.
He would come when weddings were taking place, when thanksgiving was made in the Temple, and when the shepherds could once again shepherd their sheep.
God promised to send the King when the shepherds were abiding in their fields, keeping watch over their flocks at night. Why shepherds?
Because God promised there would be grazing land for shepherds to rest their flocks. Jer 33:12-13
Now - Flash forward to the time of Luke 2 - In the Gospel of Luke, a young newly wed (a time for sounds of joy and gladness, the voice of the groom and the bride) couple heads up to Bethlehem, and she gives birth to Jesus, and the shepherds are the first to hear the announcement of the birth of the new born King! Luke 2:8-9
In the same region, shepherds were staying out in the fields and keeping watch at night over their flock.
Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.
The announcement of the birth of Jesus to the shepherds tending their herds was as necessary as the birth in Bethlehem which was also foretold, the virgin birth, and the lineage of King David.
Genesis 3:15
I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.
Isaiah 7:14 - Immanuel, God With Us - Fulfilled in Matthew 1:23
See, the virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will name him Immanuel, which is translated “God is with us.”
Bethlehem - Micah 5:2 -
Bethlehem Ephrathah, you are small among the clans of Judah; one will come from you to be ruler over Israel for me. His origin is from antiquity, from ancient times.
He will be Prophet, Priest, & King
Deut 18:15 - Prophet
“The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him.
Jer 33:18 - Priest
The Levitical priests will never fail to have a man always before me to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to make sacrifices.”
2 Sam 7:16 - King -
Your house and kingdom will endure before me forever, and your throne will be established forever.’ ”
What more fulfillment of the Good Promise do you need than to read about the angel’s chorus out on the hillside that night to a bunch of lowly shepherds!
These were the days, ordained by God, the fullness of time had come and the fulfillment of His words to Jeremiah in his time of hardship and difficulty. Praise be to God!
He Is As Advertised
He Is As Advertised
What do we make of this prophecy to Jeremiah, that a time of the shepherds return, the fulfillment of the good promise?
We can Trust Jesus is Who He Claims to be.
We can Trust Jesus is Who He Claims to be.
Let’s think about what the Bible says about Jesus. His identity doesn’t hinge only on this one passage, but a host of others, some of which we just read through. The OT is full of teaching about the work and person of Christ Jesus. The Bible is the oldest and most reliable of religious documents. It records our beginning, and our end.
It certainly speaks of Jesus’ birth, life, death, and resurrection! They were all predicted long before He appeared in the fullness of God’s timing. Only the One True and Living God would predict something like this, and see it come to pass.
In fact, in Hebrews 11, the Hall of Faith, speaks of many of these OT people like Moses and others, who all had faith in what was promised. Though they didn’t get to see the Promise, now in the Advent, that Promise is coming to fruition.
Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen.
For by this our ancestors were approved.
We can Trust Jesus is the Kind of King God Promised.
We can Trust Jesus is the Kind of King God Promised.
The promise of the shepherds & the Covenant with David gives credibility to the other prophecies mentioned by Jeremiah. So God says he will be:
A Righteous Branch - Jesus didn’t have to over throw anyone, He was the rightful heir to the throne and He fulfills the promise to David, and He will reign forever.
Just - He will administer justice in the land
Victorious - In those days, Judah will be saved. Jesus Christ claimed victory over sin, death, and Satan. His very name says it all, “He will save His people from their sins.” In His victory, people are prepared for eternity and He brings peace between man and God.
We can Trust Jesus because He is the Righteous King.
We can Trust Jesus because He is the Righteous King.
His name will be “The Lord Our Righteousness.” YHWH Tsidkenu. That name is also what the city of Jerusalem will be called as well.
The “she” in verse 16 is a reference to Jerusalem. In Jeremiah 23:5-6, that is a “he” and that refers there to Israel. The righteous name of the righteous king belongs to everyone in the city.
The conclusion is that Jesus completely fulfills this prophecy because it is Jesus who took on our sin… He became sin, who knew no sin, that we might become His righteousness.
If you’ve given your life and trust to Jesus, then 1 Cor 1:30 applies to you.
It is from him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom from God for us—our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption
Friend, that is the good news of great joy!
This Hope is Guaranteed by God
This Hope is Guaranteed by God
“This is what the Lord says: If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night so that day and night cease to come at their regular time,
then also my covenant with my servant David may be broken. If that could happen, then he would not have a son reigning on his throne and the Levitical priests would not be my ministers.
Even as the stars of heaven cannot be counted, and the sand of the sea cannot be measured, so too I will make innumerable the descendants of my servant David and the Levites who minister to me.”
Here, God guarantees this promise will be fulfilled. I’m not betting man, but I will say this…I trust God.
He issues this guarantee:
1) If you, puny human, can break my covenant with the night and day…break their cycles that He designed in creation…then He will break His covenant promise.
If that could even possible, then David will not have anyone sitting on throne.
Do you know what would have to happen to break that cycle? You’d have to stop any and all gravitational forces, stop the Earth from rotating…It is impossible for man.
Since that can’t happen, God will go head and make innumerable the lineage of David and priests who minister to God.
The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah:
“Have you not noticed what these people have said? They say, ‘The Lord has rejected the two families he had chosen.’ My people are treated with contempt and no longer regarded as a nation among them.
This is what the Lord says: If I do not keep my covenant with the day and with the night, and if I fail to establish the fixed order of heaven and earth,
then I might also reject the descendants of Jacob and of my servant David. That is, I would not take rulers from his descendants to rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But in fact, I will restore their fortunes and have compassion on them.”
But I’ve had several people tell me Lord that you’ve rejected the families you chose.
2) If I want to break My covenant with the day and with the night, and I fail to establish the fixed order of heaven and earth, then I might reject these families.
But guess that…I WILL RESTORE THEIR FORTUNES AND HAVE COMPASSION ON THEM!
CONCLUSION
Hope is another link in the chain that links us to Christ. Faith is what secures that bond, but hope strengthens it. Consider the farmer. A farmer is someone who believes that what goes down into the ground in the seed must come up. That is HOPE! The prophecies about Jesus and His coming renew our hope in His promised return.
If this COVID has you in despair, and we certainly know there are many other life events still happening that can cause despair, then believe in Jesus and the HOPE of Jesus so fill your heart today and drive out that feeling of despair. HOPE WINS! Psalm 121:1
I lift my eyes toward the mountains. Where will my help come from?
Jesus isn’t some made bedtime fairy tale. Like the young woman who dreamed that a handsome prince rode up to her and swept her off her feet, embraced her and gave her a great big kiss and rode off into the sunset with her by his side on his trusty stallion. She responded, “Goodness, where are you taking me?” The prince answered, “You tell me, its your dream.”
This is real HOPE that is guaranteed by God Himself. You can trust in the Born Prophecy.
In fact, you’ll have to put faith in something you cannot see. FAITH IS A SETTLED CONFIDENCE THAT SOMETHING IN THE FUTURE - SOMETHING OR A PROMISE THAT IS NOT YET SEEN BUT HAS BEEN PROMISED BY GOD - WILL ACTUALLY COME TO PASS BECAUSE GOD GUARANTEES AND WILL MAKE IT HAPPEN. Faith isn’t a blind leap in the face of contrary evidence, but A CONFIDENT TRUST IN THE ETERNAL GOD WHO IS ALL-POWERFUL, INFINITELY WISE, ETERNALLY TRUSTWORTHY.
If you’ve not placed your trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and salvation, won’t you do that today.
Admit to God you’re a sinner.
Believe that He died on the cross for your sin and God raised Him from the dead.
Confess Jesus and Savior & Lord of your life.
“Dear Lord Jesus, I admit that I am a sinner, I’ve not done what you’ve asked of me. I ask you to forgive me. I believe you died for my sins and rose from the dead. I trust you and confess you as my Savior and Lord.” Amen.