The Christmas Story
Part 4: The Story Foretold
Gtcotr/ss122307
The Christmas story is one of the birth of Jesus the Christ, Messiah, and Savior of the world.
Many through the years have claimed to be the Messiah but only one fulfills the prophecies written about Him more than 1000 years before His birth. No man could orchestrate these specific qualifications so as to arrange for himself to be born in the right place at the right time to the right family. No … this birth was not the plan nor the hand of man … this impossibility could only be God!
This morning we will not look at the more than 1000 prophecies easily discovered in the Old Testament concerning Messiah which were all fulfilled by Jesus, but rather we will look at only a few which surround the birth of Messiah, the reason for our celebration this Christmas season.
Watch with me as we review the story foretold and see how it narrows more and more taking us to only one certain conclusion –
Jesus is Messiah!
Prophecy says that:
Messiah will be the seed of a woman
Genesis 3:15 Galatians 4:4
A son of mankind, a descendant of Eve … Narrowing the field farther the prophecies say that:
Messiah will be the descendant of Abraham
Genesis 12:3 Galatians 3:16
Galatians 3:16 Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, "And to seeds," as of many, but as of one, "And to your Seed," who is Christ.
Farther narrowing the possibilities:
Messiah will be the descendant of
Genesis 49:10 Luke 3:33
Messiah will be the descendant of David
Jeremiah 23 & 33 Luke 1:32-33
Not only is Messiah a son of mankind, the seed of Abraham, from the Tribe of Judah, in the lineage of David, but here is the real clincher …
Messiah will be born of a Virgin
Isaiah 7:14 Matthew 1:18-25
That’s right, a virgin shall conceive, the scriptures did not say from what town the woman would be from but there is a prophecy about Messiah being called a Nazarene and Mary was from the town of
Even though scriptures do not say where the mother will be from, prophecy specifically tells the town of
Messiah will be born in
Micah 5:2 Matthew 2:1
As if that were not enough to narrow the field of prospects, the prophet Daniel recorded a conversation he had with the angel Gabriel concerning a vision God had given him. Guess what?
Messiah will be born at a specific time
Daniel 9:25-26 Galatians 4:4
This is how Gabriel explained it to Daniel …
Key Scriptures:
Daniel 9 NLT
25 Now listen and understand! Seven sets of seven plus sixty-two sets of seven will pass from the time the command is given to rebuild
26 "After this period of sixty-two sets of seven, the Anointed One, (The Messiah), will be killed, appearing to have accomplished nothing, and a ruler will arise whose armies will destroy the city and the Temple. The end will come with a flood, and war and its miseries are decreed from that time to the very end.
It is certain that when the wise men from the east saw the star rise and came to Jerusalem seeking the one who was to be born as King of the Jews, the religious leaders and priest did not only know the place of His birth but also the time. It had now been 490 years since the decree to rebuild
The Jews also knew the prophecy of Psalms 72 …
Kings will pay tribute to Messiah
Psalms 72:10-11 Matthew 2:1-11
This no doubt served to unnerve Herod even more, later making him lash out and order the killing of all the new born male babies in
More important than all of the other prophecies about Messiah is the fact that:
Messiah will be the Son of God
Psalms 2:7 Mark 1:11
No one less than the Son of the Living God could defeat sin and destroy the works of the devil. 1 John 3:8b
Prophecies do not stop with the birth of Christ, the Anointed One, Messiah of the Jews, prophecies continue to speak truth, set courses and draw destiny along it’s foreknown path. Such is the prophecy which includes:
The Gospel foretold through Isaiah
Isaiah 52:13-53:12 The Gospels
This morning I am taking no personal license suggesting these prophecies refer to Messiah and His coming. Long before the birth of Jesus, learned scholars believed and taught that these portions of scriptures pointed directly to Messiah. It was the most studied and religious Jewish scholars of the day whom King Herod sought out to learn the place of birth. How did they know? It was foretold in prophecy, prophecies which they studied, prophecies which point to Messiah.
One of the confusing elements surrounding the prophecies of Messiah paints two pictures. There are more than 300 prophecies of the first coming as a suffering Servant, (Isaiah 53), but 500 prophecies about the second coming as triumphant King, (Zachariah 14).
There are not two Messiahs but rather one only begotten Son. The Jews for the most part are waiting for the triumphant One.
More than simply offering us the kingdoms of this world for a lifetime, a risen and victorious Messiah offers us the
* He made His grave with the wicked and with the rich in His death.
* He bore our sorrows and carried our grief.
* He was despised and rejected of men, smitten and afflicted
* It pleased God to bruise Him and make Him an offering for our sins
* Jesus and Jesus alone owns the right to be called Messiah, Redeemer of mankind and Savior of the world.
I read this week that a French mathematician named George Heron calculated the odds of one man fulfilling merely 40 of more than 1000 prophecies written hundreds of years before his birth. They are 1 in 10 to the power of 157. That is a 1 followed by 157 zeros. Your odds of winning the state lottery are 14 followed by only 6 zeros.
Another mathematician, Dr Peter S. Ruckman, calculates the odds of one person fulfilling just 60 of the written prophecies concerning Messiah is equal to 10 to the 895th power. That’s a one over another one followed by 895 zeros. That’s impossible and yet it happened.
Odds like that are overwhelming … but imagine if you did put your money there, wow, even a penny wagered would make you the richest person in the universe … imagine what the payoff would be if you invested your whole life!
Before it happened it might have seemed more risky, but not now … we know from historical accounts that Jesus of Nazareth already met every qualification and fulfilled each prophecy of His first coming to the letter.
If nothing else, it just makes sense to believe in Jesus. With Him fulfilling all these prophecies is there any room left for doubt? Jesus is Messiah if only from a logical, rational, reasonable conclusion … how much more from the spiritual unction of the Holy Ghost.
Won’t you believe while we read:
Our Christmas Story
Luke 2 NLT
1 ¶ At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the
2 (This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governor of
3 All returned to their own towns to register for this census.
4 And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to
5 He took with him Mary, his fiancée, who was obviously pregnant by this time.
6 And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born.
7 She gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the village inn.
8 ¶ That night some shepherds were in the fields outside the village, guarding their flocks of sheep.
9 Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terribly frightened,
10 but the angel reassured them. "Don’t be afraid!" he said. "I bring you good news of great joy for everyone!
11 The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born tonight in
12 And this is how you will recognize him: You will find a baby lying in a manger, wrapped snugly in strips of cloth!"
13 Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God:
14 "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to all whom God favors."
15 When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, "Come on, let’s go to
16 They ran to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in the manger.
17 Then the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child.
18 All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished,
19 but Mary quietly treasured these things in her heart and thought about them often.
20 The shepherds went back to their fields and flocks, glorifying and praising God for what the angels had told them, and because they had seen the child, just as the angel had said.
Matthew 2 NLT
1 ¶ Jesus was born in the town of
2 "Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We have seen his star as it arose, and we have come to worship him."
3 Herod was deeply disturbed by their question, as was all of
4 He called a meeting of the leading priests and teachers of religious law. "Where did the prophets say the Messiah would be born?" he asked them.
5 "In Bethlehem," they said, "for this is what the prophet wrote:
6 ‘O Bethlehem of Judah, you are not just a lowly village in
7 Then Herod sent a private message to the wise men, asking them to come see him. At this meeting he learned the exact time when they first saw the star.
8 Then he told them, "Go to
9 ¶ After this interview the wise men went their way. Once again the star appeared to them, guiding them to
10 When they saw the star, they were filled with joy!
11 They entered the house where the child and his mother, Mary, were, and they fell down before him and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
12 But when it was time to leave, they went home another way, because God had warned them in a dream not to return to Herod.
13 ¶ After the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up and flee to
14 That night Joseph left for
15 and they stayed there until Herod’s death. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: "I called my Son out of
16 ¶ Herod was furious when he learned that the wise men had outwitted him. He sent soldiers to kill all the boys in and around
17 Herod’s brutal action fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah:
18 "A cry of anguish is heard in Ramah—weeping and mourning unrestrained. Rachel weeps for her children, refusing to be comforted—for they are dead."
19 ¶ When Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in
20 "Get up and take the child and his mother back to the
21 So Joseph returned immediately to
22 But when he learned that the new ruler was Herod’s son Archelaus, he was afraid. Then, in another dream, he was warned to go to
23 So they went and lived in a town called
Along with Brenda, our Eldership, Staff and Church Leadership, I want to wish all of you here and those watching a very Merry Christmas.
Make Jesus the reason for the season and accept Him as both Lord and Christ.
Jesus is Messiah … only He can satisfy your soul!
Ask Jesus into your life right now and commit to live your life according to His commandments.
Merry Christmas
