Advent - Prophets Candle

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216 O Come Thou Long Expected Jesus

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245 Exult in the Savior’s Birth

216 O Come, O Come Emmanuel

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Lords Prayer

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done

in earth, as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts,

as we forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.

Amen.

Prophecy Fulfilled

Welcome to the first week of Advent.

Introduction to advent. Not an exhaustive history, became part of church tradition in the 4th or 5th century.

Every church is filled with some form of tradition or another. Ever family is filled with tradition. We must remember that tradition in and of itself is neither good nor bad. It is what the tradition does for the participant that truly matters.

If our traditions point us to honor God and turn our focus to him then they have a form of inherent goodness.

If our traditions make us turn inward and focus on ourselves, our own wants, and pleasures then they fail to meet the mark of a tradition that we should continue.

I think each of us will agree that as we enter into this holiday season, that our Christmas traditions, western, American, traditions of how to celebrate the holiday for the most part fail to point us to Christ as the reason for celebrating.

I think this is why a tradition such as advent, 30 days of focusing our hearts on the incarnation of God in Christ, is a tradition that we can come to anew, or revive in our lives if it has been neglected.

So lets turn our focus today on the Practice of advent. Today is the first Sunday of Advent, this day corresponds with the first candle.

The first candle symbolizes hope and is called the "Prophet’s Candle." The prophets of the Old Testament, especially Isaiah, waited in hope for the Messiah’s arrival. The purple color symbolizes royalty, repentance, and fasting.

So this week as we turn to Gods word, we seek to understand better the hope that the people of Israel found in the words of the prophets regarding the coming Messiah, and how we can look back at that hope and find hope in God’s future promises to us.

Fulfilled Setting Setting

In order to see how hope was found in the prophecies that were found in the Old Testament, we must first understand the historical setting of the time of Chirst’s birth.

The Jew at the time of Christ birth had lived under Roman rule for about 60 years. Though relative peace ruled the land, Pax Romana, there was no true freedom to live and manage their country as they saw fit.

This coupled with the timeline of Daniels 70 weeks prophesied in Daniel 9, led them to be looking fo the coming Messiah.

Daniels 70 Weeks

So I mention Daniels 70 weeks. Daniel 9: 24-26

English Standard Version Chapter 9

24 “Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place. 25 Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. 26 And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing

This was the prophetic count down by which the people of Israel looked forward to the coming of the Messiah.

Daniel prophesied that after 70 weeks are decreed to bring salvation. These weeks were allegorical weeks of years. So 7 years equaled one of the weeks. So 70 weeks was 490 years.

But if you look at it closely the last week is a period of tribulation after the messiah is cut off or killed. So they knew that in the 483rd year (the 69th week) the Messiah would come on the scene.

And they had a stating point from which to measure. When the word went our to restore Jerusalem. Which could be traced back to the reign of Artaxerxes and his decree regarding Jerusalem in 457 BC. This put the Messiah coming on the scene in about 26 AD. The year that Jesus’s ministry began.

Needless to say they knew at around the time of the birth of Jesus (8BC to 4BC) depending on who you does the calculations. That this Messiah, this new King would be born.

Daniels 4 Kingdoms

But the timeline was not the only prophecy from which they had to draw hope. Daniels vision in Daniel 2:31-35 speaks of 4 kingdoms, or empires. Beginning with the Babylonian empire.

English Standard Version Chapter 2

You saw, O king, and behold, a great image. This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was frightening. 32 The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. 34 As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

The people knew that they were currently in the 4th kingdom, that of the Roman Empire. And this mean that the stone would rise up, crush the image and become a great mountain that filled the earth.

This would be the Kingdom of the Messiah that would never have an end. Dan 2:44

English Standard Version Chapter 2

And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever

Isaiah’s Promised Kingdom

And what did this promised Kingdom look like?

Is 2:3-4

English Standard Version Chapter 2

It shall come to pass in the latter days

that the mountain of the house of the LORD

shall be established as the highest of the mountains,

and shall be lifted up above the hills;

and all the nations shall flow to it,

3  and many peoples shall come, and say:

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,

to the house of the God of Jacob,

that he may teach us his ways

and that we may walk in his paths.”

For out of Zion shall go forth the law,

and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

4  He shall judge between the nations,

and shall decide disputes for many peoples;

and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,

and their spears into pruning hooks;

nation shall not lift up sword against nation,

neither shall they learn war anymore.

You see the people at the time of Christ’s birth were not surprised by the coming of the Messiah, they were looking for it. He just didn’t appear to them as they had pictured him in their traditions.

Fulfilled Person

See in their minds the Messiah was another David. Because that was the promise of the Old Testament Prophesy

Seed of Abraham

Genesis 22:18 ESV

and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”

Line of Jacob

Numbers 24:17 ESV

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.

Line of Jesse

Isaiah 11:1 ESV

There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.

Son of David

Jeremiah 23:5–6 ESV

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’

2 Samuel 7:12–13 ESV

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. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

Lineage was everything in the days of Jesus. Each person had an exhaustive family lineage to show what patriach they descended from

Jesus was no different. In order to be the Messiah Jesus had to come from the line of David.

This is why Matthew opens his gospel, and the story of Jesus’s birth with a lineage tracing back from Jesus to Abraham, through David, Through Jesse, and Through Jacob.

Now in discussing this point you will find some objection because this lineage seems to be of Joseph, who was obviously not Jesus's biological father. There is much to discuss of this point, but there is also another lineage in the Gospel of Luke, and that one looks different, and it seems to be and is reported to be that of Mary rather than Joseph. So either way, through His mother, or His adopted father He was of the House of David in His earthly lineage.

Fulfilled Prophecy

But that was not enough. many, many Jews of that time were of the lineage of David, that did not make them the Messiah. There were many other OT prophecies that must be fulfilled in order to make that mark.

The nature, location and circumstances surrounding Jesus’s birth had to meet the prophesies that were expected of the coming Christ. This is the point of Matthew’s birth narrative.

Virgin Birth

Matthew first deals with the fact that this child that was to be the Messiah could not be just any normal child. Scripture had indicated that this child was to be born of a virgin.

Matthew 1:23 ESV

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).

Isaiah 7:14 ESV

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

A massively bold claim, and one that was not regularly understood as applying to the Messiah at the time, but nonetheless a prophecy given in another context, but fulfilled in Christ.

Location

In Matthew 2:6 we see the fulfillment of Micah 5:2

Matthew 2:6 ESV

“ ‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’ ”

Micah 5:2 ESV

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.

But Matthew also tells us in 2:15 that the Son of God is called out of Egypt

Matthew 2:15 ESV

and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

Hosea 11:1 ESV

When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.

And finally Matthews story tells us that it is prophesied that the Messiah will be called a Nazarene

Matthew 2:23 ESV

And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene.

Isaiah 53:1–3 ESV

Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

John 1:46 ESV

Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”

So this Messiah, could not simply be a son of David born in Bethlehem, that was far to simple. This person had to meet the requirement of being know from 3 different geographically separated locations

Grave Consequences

As might be expected the birth of this child that was to be the fulfillment of all that we find in Daniel and Isaiah, would not go unnoticed, and Matthew tells us that the consequences of the revelation of this birth.

Matthew 2:17–18 ESV

Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”

Jeremiah 31:15 ESV

Thus says the Lord: “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.”

You see though we look to the story of the birth of Christ and we see great hope and a beautiful story, we must realize that it is not a gentile story. It is the beginning of a war.

The sitting King, would have no reason to kill the sons of a town if he did not feel that this child posed a threat to him. He knew the prophecies and the timing was right. And He responded as one seeking to destroy any who would come against him.

But even in that He was fulfilling one more prophesy that showed this child was the coming Messiah

Conclusion

Today marks the first Sunday of Advent. A tradition formed by the church with the sole purpose of seeking to focus Christians on the celebration of the incarnation, the birth of Jesus.

When we look to see what that truly meant to the first Christians, the Jews who believed on Christ, we see that this was no small event. This was the birth of the promised figure in history that would change the world forever. That would change the very nature of the relationship between God and man.

He was to be their savior. He was to establish a kingdom that would last forever. That is just what He did. It might not have met the expectations of their traditions, but it was the perfect fulfillment of prophesy. It was exactly how God planned it from before the foundations of the world.

Jesus came, fully God, fully man, so that He might defeat sin in His people, all those who would believe in him, so that they might be part of the Kingdom of God. A kingdom that began in a stable, was inaugurated on a Cross, built by 11 men into a worldwide movement. This is the good news of what happened in Bethlehem about 2025 years ago. We today can have hope in salvation today because of the fulfillment of prophesy so long ago.

Doxology

Closing Prayer

If anyone has any questions or concerns feel free to catch me afterwards. And a quick reminder we do have plates in the back for anyone who desires to worship through giving today. The plate to the right is general giving, and the one to the left is specific for our missions giving.

Join us as we sing the doxology:

Praise God from whom all blessings flow, Praise Him all creatures here below, Praise Him above ye Heavenly Host, Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

Jude 24–25 ESV

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.