The Journey Continues

The Journey to Bethlehem Continues

I want to pick up from last Sunday. Even though we have established the journey to Bethlehem began in the Garden, we cannot leave it there. We need to take it on the road. We need to learn more about the promise, and we need to learn about the promised Savior. It is not just about what happened in the Garden. What happened was not a random chain of events. It is about the relationship between God and man. It is about you and I having that relationship with God, so we do not hide from Him in our personal ‘Garden.’ Remember, Isaiah tells us we were “created to glorify God,” the best way we can glorify God is by being in the right relationship with Him.

The remainder of the scripture following Genesis is devoted to the promise ‘someone is coming’. The remainder of scripture shows how God carried out the promise he made in that one verse back in Genesis. You know mankind by himself has not had a very successful track record with God. Man gets kicked out of the Garden because of sin, there is then the first murder, it does not take long, and God is fed up with mankind in general “because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.” (1 Peter 3:20 ESV) God may have been fed up with man, but he was not finished with us. Considering events in our individual lives, do you ever feel like you have been kicked out of the Garden of Eden by God Himself? Imagine how Adam and Eve felt; they were undoubtedly living in the most beautiful spot on earth; they were in the perfect situation; they walked with wth God. Sin comes into the picture separation from God is now in play, and the guilt associated with it all is now foremost in the picture. Does this describe any situation you have ever found for yourself?

Nevertheless, all is not lost, God’ plan for his creation, this time the plan was to work through a man named Abram, “Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:1-3 ESV). God chose a man Abram; he is better known to us as Abraham. God chose Abraham and his descendants to carry the blessing forward through all of the centuries. Is it not something how Abraham was so willing to do God’s bidding even though he had no real idea of what would happen due to his willingness to obey God? “And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” I doubt God had revealed to Abraham that from his offspring would come to the Messiah, the very promise made in Genesis 3.15 was going to come through his lineage. What about us? How willing are we to do God’s bidding? Abraham was willing to make great sacrifices for his obedience to God, even to the point of bringing his son of promise to be sacrificed. Later God reaffirmed this promise to Abraham, “and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 22.18). Please note the last little bit of Genesis 22.18, “because you have obeyed my voice.” Obedience to God seems to be of paramount importance throughout the scriptures. You know this was not the last promise of the Messiah. As he passes on his blessing to his children, the great patriarch of the Old Testament Jacob tells the one son Judah the Messiah would come from his linage. “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” (Genesis 49:10 ESV).

Still another one of the great men of the Holy Scriptures, Moses, is told by “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— (Deuteronomy 18.15). God was not talking about Moses; rather, God was referring to the Messiah, Jesus Christ. God further emphasized this a couple of verses later when he said, “And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him” (Deuteronomy 18:15, 18 ESV). Throughout the scriptures, references are made concerning the Messiah; Jesus Christ Himself is mentioned numerous times through the Psalms 2, 16, 22, 89, 110, 118, to mention only a few. In his “Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy,” J. Barton Payne itemized 127 Messianic predictions involving more than 3,000 Bible verses, with a remarkable 574 verses referring directly to a personal Messiah! The book “The Messiah in the Old Testament” examined 65 direct prophecies about the Messiah. These incredible promises formed one of the most central themes of the Old Testament: the coming Messiah.

What of our continued “Journey to Bethlehem”? How does the journey fit for us going forward?

“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. Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth; then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel. And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. And he shall be their peace.” (Micah 5:2-5 ESV)

The prophet Micah points to Bethlehem as being the birthplace of the Messiah.

So much of the prophecy of Christ comes from the prophet Isaiah, like for example, the virgin birth, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14 ESV). Jesus being the seed of the woman, but there was so much more to it than this reference. The prophet again talks to us, this time about the Messiah’s eternal kingship, “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. 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. (Isaiah 9:6-7 ESV). The prophet describes Jesus as the cornerstone, and the foundation, “Whoever believes (in him) will not be in haste” (Isaiah 28.16). In his prophecy, Daniel even gives a timetable for his appearance, that the anointed one would come to Jerusalem when the time was right (Daniel 9.25, 26).

What of the expectation of the Messiah? As the serious followers of the Messianic prophecies studied the prophecies, there was a growing sense of anticipation in the Jewish nation. People spoke and sang about the Messiah’s coming. Expectant Jewish mothers prayed and hoped that their son would be God’s Appointed One.

What a sense of anticipation, where is our anticipation? What are we anxiously awaiting? This time of year, children anticipate Christmas. We anticipate seeing our children and perhaps our grand-children and having family time. All of the old Christmas carols remind us of these things, “in the air, there is a feeling of Christmas.”

Let us talk about a different expectation, and we will get into this as we conclude the short mini-series on the birth of Jesus. What about the expectation of Jesus’ return? We spend all of the time and energy on a holiday, and in reality, far too many people, including many Christians, give too little thought to the Messiah promised throughout scripture. We need to praise God that He sent His son to die for us to deal with our sin and separation problem from God. Yes, the promise of the Old Testament was Jesus is coming, and the thought of the gospels was He is here, and we need to be living in the expectation of His return. In the meantime, what have you done with Him?

Next week we will follow the words of the shepherd “let’s go to Bethlehem.”