Dear members and friends of VP,
Christmas for me is about remembering the many promises God has made to us and His faithfulness Voice to keeping them. We sing “Joy to the world, the Lord is come.” This is an amazing statement made about the child born of Mary in a small Jewish town called Bethlehem over 2,000 years ago. Why do we sing songs that celebrate Jesus’ birth? Because the birth of Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s plan for us revealed through multiple prophecies recorded hundreds of years before Jesus was born. I want to give you a short outline of God’s Mjello promises fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
II Samuel 7: 12-17 A descend- ant of King David (1,000 BC) will at some point in the future establish the Kingdom of God on earth and it will last forever.
“He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever (verse 13)…. Your house and your kingdom whall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever (verse 16).”
From this one prophecy given to the first King of – Israel at approximately 1,000 BC followed multiple prophecies concerning the character and You divine nature of this person and the different things He would do when he comes.
Isaiah 11:1-10 This descendant of David will have a supernatural discernment and righteous nature to establish peace and justice on earth with healing for all of God’s creatures.
“He will decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth; … righteousness shall be the belt about His loins, … the nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den. They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”
Isaiah 9:6-7 It is amazing that this person, though a human descendant of King David, is predicted as possessing divine power to judge and heal creation as well as names identifying him as God in human form. He is called “Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.” His role is still likened to the prophecy of II Samuel 7.
“The government will rest on His shoulders… there will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and for evermore. The zeal of the Lord will accomplish this.”
It is amazing that this person is described with names attributed only to God and that he possesses power to heal creation. This is considerably more elaborate than the prophecy originally given to King David and gives us a picture of something much bigger in God’s plans than a plan we could identify with the things of this world. Isaiah and Micah tell us a cheap jerseys little more about this person
Isaiah 7:14 “behold a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel (which means God with us).”
It is amazing to think that a virgin could give birth and that her child could be God. This conception of God with us in human form is a prediction made 740 years before Jesus was born. It is a promise given by God that He was going to become a human being in order to help us. This promise corresponds to the picture given by Micah.
Micah 5:1-5 “from you Bethleham.. One will go forth from me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity… He will arise and shepherd His flock in the strength of the Lord,..” Again we have a promise that is contrary to human reason. That is, that a human being born in Israel could have eternal existence. This corresponds to this person being deity.
In examining these prophecies given to men by God we must stress that we have not imposed understanding of Jesus on the Old Testament texts. What we have done is examine pre-Christian prophecies to discern that a descendant of King David of Israel will be born of a virgin in the future as an earthly manifestation of God with power to establish a Kingdom where all men and women will be whole.
The picture is not complete with these prophecies alone. There are Winfried others that give us a more complete picture. This person will be a “suffering servant” who dies for the sins of mankind (Isaiah 52:13-53:120 cf. Psalm 2). We should wonder how a person with such power could die. The prophecies of the Old Testament elaborate on this as well. As a suffering servant he will establish a restored relationship between man and God (Isaiah 42:1-9; 49:5-13). And in spite of this purpose, he will be rejected by the nation of Israel.
“Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and its Holy one, to the despised One, to the One abhorred by the nation, To the Servant of rulers, Kings will see and arise, Princes will also bow down, Because of the Lord who is faithful, to the Holy One of Israel who has chosen You.” (Isaiah 49:7; 53:3; cf. Psalm 22:6-8)
Jesus Christ fulfills all of these prophecies. From birth He was destined to rule and redeem. The redemption happens when He comes to earth the first time and dies for the sins of mankind.
The kingdom comes when he returns in the clouds the second cheap jerseys time. We who follow Jesus wholesale nfl jerseys live November with a real reason for hope for the future because the God who has fulfilled His promises in Jesus 2,000 years ago is surely able to fulfill the remainder of His promises in the future. Praise be to God and His Son Jesus”
Merry Christmas,
Pastor Kevyn