Reflection - God's Plan In Motion

So we're going to continue reading right from, just picking right up from where Scott was at this past Sunday.

We're going to continue on in Isaiah, chapter 59, the last half of verse 15, going on into 21.

Isaiah 59 · chapter mention

We'll read it from the NLT today, and so we'll just continue with just.

If you don't have NLT with you, you can read it off the screen.

The Lord looked and was displeased to find that there was no justice.

He was amazed to see that no one intervened to help the oppressed.

So he himself stepped in to save them with his strong arm, and his justice sustained them.

He put on righteousness as body armor and placed the helmet of salvation on his head.

He clothed himself with a robe of vengeance and wrapped himself in a cloak of divine passion.

He will repay his enemies for their evil deeds.

His fury will fall on his foes.

He will pay them back even to the ends of the earth.

In the west, people will respect the name of the Lord, and in the east they will glorify him, for he will come like a raging flood tide driven by the breath of the Lord.

The Redeemer will come to Jerusalem to buy back those in Israel who have turned from their sins, says the Lord, and this is my covenant with them, says the Lord.

My spirit will not leave them, and neither will these words I've given you.

They will be on your lips and the lips of your children and your children's children forever.

I, the Lord, have spoken.

Let's pray, father, we just thank you so much for who you are and what you've done for us, father, and we're reading into your word today, and even while I was reading, even though I've read this so many times right there, that these words that we're reading today will be on our lips and they're on our lips here today.

Because you are so good, god, I just pray that you'd help us to see what you have for us today in these scriptures.

Lord, in Jesus' name, amen.

Wow, there's a lot to unpack in these scriptures.

There's a lot said here and it's just incredible.

I had this week a hard time when I was studying it and putting it all together.

I had 15 million things I wanted to talk about and I had to finally send them over to Tyler and be like help me out, man, they're not lining up.

And he just put them in order and made sense of it all, because it just brings up so much.

You know, thinking about the history of our people, of the Israel and the future, and then all the way back to the New Testament and all the words that are coming out of the New Testament, and then, as you're reading those, if you've studied some of the Old Testament, you're like I've read this before, like where's this coming from?

You know, and it's just incredible to see that.

And we're going to continue in the Reflection Series and I'm going to try to answer the question this morning why does it matter that Jesus came to earth?

Right?

So we're going to continue on with that.

So the prophecy we just heard is a beacon of hope for Israel.

It had been many years I mean thousands of years in desolation, thousands of years with no hope, and these scriptures were like a beacon of hope, like a ship out at sea with a bad storm and it's being tattered and it's being flipped and turned and it thinks it has no hope because it's fixing to sink.

And then they see a light in the distance.

This scripture is that light.

This scripture is that light in the distance for them.

And so God gives us this beacon of hope.

But what hope?

Well, the scriptures we just read are about a man named Jesus and that's it didn't say his name.

He doesn't need to say his name because it just repeatedly kept talking about the Redeemer, and it was really cool.

We're going to see that today and of course, we are in this Christmas season right now, right, and we're fixing to celebrate with our families and those type of things.

But you realize that we wouldn't have crucifixion, resurrection if we didn't have the birth.

We spent a lot of time each year talking about the Crucifixion and the resurrection, of course, because that is how the blood of Christ was shed for us and set us free.

But if he didn't come to earth, there would have been a none of that.

So this is the beginning.

Christmas is about Jesus.

This is the beginning of the story of redemption.

But is it just the beginning?

We'll see more of that.

Maybe some of us need to be reminded of what Christmas is.

Some of us might not even know what Christmas is truly about.

They know that okay.

Yeah, it's about Jesus.

But today I want to shed just a little bit of history and facts about Christmas Against popular opinion.

It has nothing to do with a fat man in a red suit, has Nothing to do with the gifts around your tree has nothing to do with the tree, all right.

It has everything to do with the birth of a little child and, as we'll see, was foretold thousands of years before his birth.

Jesus did come.

For some of you skeptics, maybe online or even in the room Did Jesus come?

Well, yeah, there's so many things in all of human history that states it ancient writings outside of the Bible, if you need much more time was wrapped around his whole coming to earth, bc ad right, so it's easy to see.

History proves that Jesus did come.

Historians would be crazy to even try to say that he didn't come, because there's just too many ancient writings Other than the Bible saying that this man, jesus, was born.

Christmas isn't just a holiday that was made up to make the season nice.

That's not what it's made for.

We could have just had cookies and cocoa for that.

Even in its earliest form, christmas was to remember Jesus birth.

Now here's the thing in the Bible it doesn't tell us what day Jesus was born.

We see that.

But the first man to ever call December the 25th Christmas Day, with Jesus's birthday, was in the year 221, and I'm gonna butcher his name bad, I'm sure.

I'm sure, I'm sure.

I'm sure this guy's the one who started calling it Christmas, and some say that he uses date to correlate the Roman holiday, winter solstice, trying to take it away from, like the Romans, so that they could start celebrating something better than the idol, right?

A second view suggests that December the 5th came in the year two and a half.

The second view suggests that December the 5th became became the date of Jesus's birthday by deductive reasoning which identified the spring equinox as the date of creation and then the fourth day of creation when light was created as Jesus conception, which would make sense, right?

If that is true, then that day was March the 25th, nine months later, december the 25th.

So that's another view.

I'm gonna tell you which one I believe.

No, I'm not, because it doesn't matter.

None of these reasons are important.

What is important is that we celebrate Jesus.

He is an amazing gift.

It's not about getting these gifts.

It's about we've already gotten the greatest gift ever.

So, as we can see in the scriptures we read in Isaiah 59 there is a plan that God has always had.

Always it's been part of the plan, and from time to time God would share with some of his prophets things that were to come To give them little beacons of hope.

These particular scripture that we just read was prophecies given to Isaiah For the people of Judah In the southern kingdom of Israel, which is where the promised Messiah would come from.

So it matters that Jesus came and how he came, so that God's plan of salvation would come to pass Again.

It's all the way back to the beginning.

We're gonna study that.

So it was the Father God's idea for Jesus to come to the earth All the way from the beginning of time.

Pay attention, as we talk about these scriptures, that the Trinity is present through this entire prophecy God, the Father, the Son and the Spirit.

We'll start with God, the Father.

He looked up on the conditions of the earth and was saddened and sicked.

The Lord looked and was displeased to find that there was no justice.

He was amazed to see that no one intervened to help the oppressed.

So he himself stepped in to save them with his strong arm and his justice sustained him.

There was no justice and no hope, because no human being in this world could step up and help the oppressed us.

Only Jesus could bring salvation to the world.

God knew that since the fall of man there wasn't anybody that could ever step up.

There wasn't anybody that could redeem his creation back to himself.

So, as he promised, he sent his son, jesus, to be the Redeemer of the world.

Listen to the scripture we read.

So he himself stepped in to save them with his strong arm and his justice.

God sustained him.

Jesus the Redeemer will come to Jerusalem.

Who's a Redeemer?

Jesus the Redeemer will come to Jerusalem to buy back those in Israel who have turned from their sins, says the Lord.

We're already reading the gospel of Jesus, 700 years before Jesus was born.

Those who repent, the Redeemer will save.

Wow, what a beacon of hope for these people.

If Jesus didn't come, we would still be in complete desolation.

We'd still have no light.

We'd still be in the same place, because Jesus is the light.

He was the light in a dark room.

That's why we call him the light of the world, because the world was dark.

Until he came, there was no hope.

He became the hope.

Another Old Testament prophet, micah, describes a transformation in Micah 7.7, that he realized as God's speaking to him and telling him things that were going to happen.

He says but as for me, I will look to the Lord, I will wait for God of my salvation.

My God will hear me rejoice, not over me, my enemy.

When I shall fall, or when I fall, cause I shall rise.

When I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me.

He knew that this was coming because God was revealing.

The light is coming and we know that Jesus has always been the light.

All of life was created through him.

We see that in John, that all of the life was completely created through him.

You're only here today because God allows you to be here.

Whether you belong to him or not, you're only breathing because God allows you to.

You guys get that, like, has anybody got a choice to breathe right now?

Like you got the choice for what about?

Maybe 60 seconds, and then your lungs choose differently for you, right, who gave your lungs the command to do that?

God, right, and if there were no oxygen in the room, you'd just die.

Right, god gives you the oxygen, and so, for you online or the skeptics in the room, you have no choice to breathe.

You don't Only God gave it to you.

And so if you know Jesus today or you don't know Jesus today, you think about the grace and the mercy that he has on your life that he still allowed you to breathe.

Today, even when you're not in right with him, he still lets you breathe.

He's still, and I think about this from time to time.

My little girl will make stuff at home.

She's a real artistic young lady and she will make things and then, like, when it don't turn out the way she wants it to, she just throws it in the trash.

God hasn't never done that, or else I'd have been in the trash a long time ago.

God created me.

I didn't do exactly what he wanted me to do.

I didn't stand exactly how he wanted me to, how he created me.

I didn't do that and I still don't.

And instead of getting mad at me and throwing me in the trash, he's still.

He's still working with me because he loves me, and it's the same thing for all of time.

And that's where this scripture brings us Now.

Check this out.

The presence of the Holy Spirit would be that with those who Jesus redeemed forever.

We talked about God, the Redeemer, jesus, and now the Holy Spirit.

You can't say he's not talking about the Spirit, because he said and my spirit right, and this is my covenant with them, says the Lord, my spirit will not leave them, and neither will the words I give to you.

They will be on your lips and on the lips of your children and your children's children forever.

I, the Lord, have spoken.

When I read that the first time, I'm brought straight to where Jesus says if I leave, when I leave, I leave you the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, and through him you do greater things than even I have done.

Wow, 700 years before, 700 years before, the gospel of Jesus is already being told of what would happen and how it would happen.

See, the prophecies given from God must be fulfilled for his redemptive plan to work.

One of the awesome things about the Bible, one of the things I love when I'm reading it, is to see how it proves itself like, how it is the truth.

And the Bible is remarkably self-consistent.

Despite being written by more than 40 different authors in a time span of 1500 years, over 13 different countries and three different continents, while some were in war and some were going through other circumstances with crazy multitude of issues, the Bible still holds itself true to itself.

It doesn't come against itself.

One writer doesn't come against the other, and that, right there, blows my mind that over here, this person's never heard of this guy's writing, and yet this one's writing the same thing as this one is God's revealing to both of them.

God's talking to both of them, and over 100 years, because you remember, they weren't walking around with the Bible like we have it on our cell phone right.

They may have seen some other writings we know they probably saw the Torah, but some of the other writings from different prophets, from one area to the other area, like they probably didn't see each other's writings, and yet God's speaking to this one and God's speaking to this one and God's speaking to this one over hundreds of years.

And then it was brought together into the Bible that we know today, and so these holy scriptures, for hundreds of years before Jesus' birth, there was a number of prophets that gave that God gave a glimpse of Jesus' life too.

Now, isaiah and Micah that we're gonna read from in just a moment.

They were written in the years 740 to 700 BC and Micah was 720 to 700 BC, so even they're speaking, relatively speaking, we're only talking maybe 15, 20 years in between these two prophets receiving this revelation from God.

It could have been at the same time, because we don't know the exact dates it was written, but that is pretty close that God is revealing to them this promise that is to come.

And the way that he's revealing it to them is very, very detailed.

It's not just like, hey, I'm gonna send you somebody, just wait for me.

No, he's gonna go down the street, he's gonna walk over, you're gonna meet him over here and he's gonna be over there and he's gonna look like this and he's giving us details, incredible details, and so I was thinking about this earlier in the week is it'd be like somebody in the year 1300, like telling us something was gonna happen and we keep passing this down and then like it happens today.

That's how many years that this happened.

I mean, that is a long time to wait, right?

So let's look at these scripture there's 700 years before Jesus was born.

700 years is still below his mind.

Therefore, the Lord himself and I mean I'm sorry, I mean Isaiah 714 is probably on the screen.

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

Then, over in Isaiah 9-6, to us a child is born, to us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulders and his name should be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, prince of Peace and over.

In Micah, chapter 5, verse 2, but you, o Bethlehem, ephrathah, who are too little to become to be among the clans of Judah for you, shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from old, from ancient times, ancient times.

Micah 5:2

This child to come is going to come from ancient times, from the beginning of the world, ancient times.

He's always been there, 700 years.

And so now I'm gonna we're gonna move on in just a moment to read, but as we begin to read it, I want to, I want us to realize that the events that took place, each and every single one of them, I've been talking about here, as he is giving us details of what's gonna happen, that they go back to help fulfill over 300 prophecies that have been given over the last 3,500 years.

It started back in Genesis, chapter 3, when God said that this offspring of a woman would crush the serpent.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

All the way back to Genesis 17, when God promised Abraham that he would establish an everlasting covenant with Isaac's offspring.

Wow, for that long these details had been floating around, and we must understand that none of these details happened by chance, because there is no way at all that it is possible for someone to accidentally fulfill over 300 prophecies.

It's impossible.

And besides that, they started to be fulfilled before Jesus was even conceived in Mary.

These prophecies in Isaiah 40 and Micah 3 talk about John the Baptist, who was gonna come to prepare the way.

And then we see that before John the Baptist was born, zachariah, who's a priest in the Jerusalem temple, and his wife Elizabeth.

They're very old, they've never been able to have children, but an angelic visitation comes to them and tells them that they would have a son who would make way for the Savior.

It's already happening and Jesus is not even there yet.

And besides that, let's go back a little bit further, a little bit more common, since here a baby can't choose where it's going to be born.

You know, a baby's never gotten to say, oh, I'm gonna go to Bethlehem and I'm gonna be born in Knoxville.

Of course we know babies can't choose that, also, that a baby couldn't choose that his mama would be a virgin.

Let's go back one more step.

A virgin can't have a child, right, but yet she did.

And the fact, too, that these shepherds sort of feel nearby and God comes to them in an angelic visitation and tells them hey, right down the street, you're fixing to have the Messiah, he's coming.

My promise from 700 years ago, it's fixing to happen.

So we need to realize that while we read and understand the Christmas story as it is, we don't need to just read through the scriptures because we've heard it 1500 times.

We need to listen to their details, because in the details is the proof that Jesus is the Messiah.

He has come to save us.

It is a promise from God being fulfilled.

It is a prophecy coming true.

That's huge.

It's not just a great little story about a little baby Jesus, born in a little stable.

This is the promise Messiah coming that has been in history for as long as you could think.

So let's go to Luke 2, verse 1 through 20.

Luke 2:1–20

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth to Galilee, to Judea, to Bethlehem, the town of David, because he belonged to the house and the line of David we read about that right.

And he went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.

While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son.

She wrapped him in clothes and placed him in a manger because there was no guest room available for them and there were shepherds living in the fields nearby keeping watch over their flocks.

At night, an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were terrified.

But the angel said to them do not be afraid.

I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all people.

Today, in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you.

He is the Messiah, the Lord.

Today, in the town of David, a Savior has been born, and he will be and he is the Messiah.

This will be a sign to you.

You will find the baby wrapped in clothes and lying in a manger.

Suddenly, a company of great heavenly hosts appeared, with the angel praising God and saying Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth, peace to those whom his favor rests.

When the angels had left and gone into heaven, the shepherds asked, said to one another Let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.

So they hurried off and they found Mary and Joseph and the baby who was lying in a manger.

And when they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told to them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at the shepherds, what the shepherds said to them.

But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart, and the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for the things that they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

So what's the big deal about Jesus' birth?

Why does it matter?

Because it's the fulfillment of what God said in plan thousands of years before.

God was going to make straight the paths.

He was going to bring light in the darkness.

He was going to bring sight to the blind, the spiritual blind.

The big deal about Christmas that we do every year celebrates our Savior has come, redemption is here, salvation is ours to have as a free gift.

Can we put that gift down on the tree Today?

The light has come and some of you today might be hearing and understanding for the first time that, wow, jesus really is the Messiah.

And if he is the Messiah, what does that mean for your life?

Because Jesus Christ called himself God.

He said he and God are one.

Jesus Christ said I'm the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me.

If we believe and wholeheartedly know, through history and all facts, that Jesus was born in this manner, this is a God appointed thing.

No one else in all of human history has been born in this way.

This is God coming as his son, the Messiah.

So if he is and he is who he says he is what does that mean for your life?

Are you going to continue living life in just this mediocre way, just going on?

Or today, now that you realize that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven, are you ready to make a decision that you're going to follow him, because that's the only way to God, that's the only way that God has been talking about for thousands of years to redeem you and I to him was through Jesus Christ.

And the word of God tells us that if we believe on him, we believe that he is the Messiah, that he came and died and rose again, that we can be his and he can make us one with him again, we will never be alone, because he will put place in us the Holy Spirit that will lead and guide us and direct us through the darkest of times that as well had been prophesied hundreds of years before.

God said that I will put my spirit on them and my spirit will never leave them.

These are the promises for us today, and it all began with a baby being born in Bethlehem that had been talked about for thousands of years.

Father, we just come to you today, god.

I pray if there's anyone here that don't know you that today, lord, that they would think about turning to you, giving their life wholeheartedly to you.

King of the world, savior of the world, the Messiah that we have been waiting for for thousands of years, two thousand years ago, came, lived, died on the cross and rose again, all foretold in all of our history books telling us that it actually happened, god, we just thank you, lord, for what you have done for us, and we pray that no one would leave here without turning their heart to you.

Jesus Got anybody watching online right now, lord.

I just pray that you move in their heart.

You would lead them to you, jesus, the only way to the Father, and that they would turn their lives completely over to you.

In the name of Jesus, amen.