God with Us - part 1 - The Promise
Notes
Transcript
God with Us - part 1 - The Promise
God with Us - part 1 - The Promise
21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.
22 Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,
23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
God with us...
Immanuel - OT prophecy
14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, And shall call his name Immanuel.
23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
When we look at the account of Gabriel speaking to Mary in Luke 1 and the account of the Angel of the Lord in Mat 1 speaking to Joseph, the name was to be Jesus - but the meaning of the Christ child being born was - God would be with us...
God with us...
There was no argument in the NT about the coming of the Messiah...
The scriptures were very clear that Messiah would come, and the Hebrew people - the Jews believed in the coming Messiah...
It wasn’t an issue of if - the issue was who...
The Promise had been made...
Scripture had recorded the prophecies and promises of a coming child, who would also be Prophet, Priest and King...
The Savior of the world...
But not all who were alive in the day of our Savior accepted him as the fulfillment of those prophecies and promises...
In the next 3 weeks, we are going to look at “God with Us” -
God with Us - part 1 - The Promise -
God with Us - part 1 - The Promise -
23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
God with us...
We celebrate Jesus as the Savior -
The Son of God...
By faith we trust that Jesus IS Messiah...
But the Lord Jesus is not accepted by all as the One who fulfilled the OT prophecies...
Is it merely an act of baseless faith, or does our faith in Jesus have more to stand on - than - “That’s what I believe”?
Salvation is an act of faith...
and I am so glad that I put my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
It doesn’t take great depths of faith…
The faith of a little child -
Belief
15 Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
47 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.
Praise be to God that HE is with us...
God with Us… Emmanuel
But, is this faith that we have baseless? Is it unsubstantiated?
Couldn’t anyone claim to be Jesus?
Long list of Claimants to have been the Messiah - from 1st century to today...
8 And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them.
The Promise...
we find these promises tied up in prophecies…
Prophets were those who would foretell… and they would be a true prophet only if what they said came to fulfillment...
There have been many false prophets, and what separates the true prophet from the false prophets - were the results of their prophecies...
Scholars believe there are somewhere between 200-300 prophetical references to the Messiah in the OT...
Many of these of course are disputed… were they dealing with an issue of the day, or was there future references inferred… and of course these are hard to nail down...
The Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary lists 121 fulfilled messianic prophecies...
Josh McDowell - in his study, he shows 61 fulfilled Major Messianic prophecies...
In another study, by Peter Stoner -
Science Speaks, Stoner took only 8 prophecies to calculate the odds of 1 person fulfilling each of them.
Stoner and 600 of his students worked on the probability ratio’s - considering only 8 of the prophecies of a man fulfilling just 8:
= 1 in 100 quadrillion - 100x17power
to make this a little easier to grasp -
Suppose we take 10x17power of silver dollars and lay them on the face of texas… They would cover all of Texas 2 feet deep. Now mark 1 of those silver dollars - mix them all thoroughly and then blindfold a man - tell him he can go anywhere in Texas, but he can only pick 1 silver dollar, and it must be the right one...
He would have no chance at all in getting the right one...
The chances of all of the prophecies and prophets to prophecy for 1 man to fulfill these would be far greater...
Over 1500 between the beginning and ending of the penning of scripture - 400 years of silence between the OT / NT...
Then we multiply the actual # of prophecies beyond 8 - to the 121 clear prophecies, and it is amazing...
You see, our Faith in 1 man - Jesus being able to fulfill EVERY PROPHECY concerning his coming, His life… there is nothing to say but AMAZING...
It could only be God!!!
It could only be Jesus - the only ONE who fulfilled each of these prophecies...
Several things we can see -
God with us...
The Promise...
His Coming
Mary
26 And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,
27 To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.
28 And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.
29 And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.
30 And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.
31 And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.
32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:
33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
34 Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?
35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
Joseph
20 But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.
21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.
22 Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,
23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
First mention of His coming -
15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
God with Us… The Promise of:
His Coming
His Conquering
21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.
He shall save his people from their sins...
Conquering of the Serpent
Conquering the Sin debt
Conquering Satan’s onslaught - attack of the innocent life…
Herod’s fear of the Christ child - having all the little ones 2 and under slaughtered...
The Devil always has been against life!!!
The Devil is for population control
The Devil is for death of the innocent and the unborn...
The Devil is for death - he isn’t satisfied with abortion - he is for the death even after the child is born...
10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
Jesus Conquered the enemies:
Before his birth
At his birth
After his birth
During his life...
23 Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:
Jesus conquered the last enemy of death at his resurrection… Just as was prophecy’d
God with Us… The Promise of:
His Coming
His Conquering
His Caring
23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
God with us...
the perspective has changed...
In many of the OT references, God was saying “I am with you”
But here now - the very name is for the people to say...
GOD WITH US...
God is with us!!!!
Glory to God
Praise be to His holy name...
The God of heaven would care enough to be personal with us...
God with us...
His Care...
Why would God want to be with me??? (I don’t even want to be with me)
His Caring...
Caring to come
Caring to be engaged
Caring to intermeddle with the affairs of mankind...
His caring...
God with Us… The Promise of:
His Coming
His Conquering
His Caring
Christmas - a time of celebration of the greatest gift ever given...
God gave himself...