This week we'll continue are study of Jesus, called Extra Ordinary Jesus, and we will look at His birth. But before we can get to that let me just recap and hopefully get us to see the picture that has been painted in our 1st 2 studies of Jesus.
For in those studies we saw Jesus as the King of kings, seated on His throne in heaven, being worshiped by the angels, ruling over, controlling and sustaining ALL of creation! And unlike king Uzzaih, who was a great king himself but had died, Jesus is the Eternal King!
In the beginning He was there ruling and reigning! At the end He will be there ruling and reigning! And for the years in between Jesus is there ruling and reigning! There is none like Him! There is none greater than Him! There is none equal to Him! He has no beginning and has no end!
He is Almighty God!
And this Great King, in Whom and for whom and by Whom all things were created, when sin entered the world, when we were separated from God, when we rebelled and turned our backs on Him, He looked upon us with compassion and love and knowing that the only way for us to ever be able to enjoy fellowship with Him again was for Him to get up off His throne, leave His angles and heaven and enter human history as a man, in humility He did it!
He went from the highest place of honour, to the humblest, lowliest position anyone could take, and He did it willingly for you and for me! From a King, THE King, to the lowliest servant! From the presence of angels singing 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts' to the presence of men shouting 'Kill Him! Kill Him! Kill Him!'
And we find ourselves today at the beginning of Jesus mission of reconciliation, that first great step in our redemption- His birth!
Now, there is so much we could say about His birth, so many different ways to come at it, so much time we could spend on it, and why not! This was an amazing thing! God became Man just for the purpose of saving us!
And remember, Jesus has shown up in history before now! In fact, anywhere in the Old Testament where we read 'THE Angel of the Lord' as opposed to 'AN angel of the Lord' we are reading of Jesus, physically appearing to man. But this time is different! Then He was entirely God, here He is man! Flesh and blood like you and me!
But I want to look at it from 2 angles, Prophecy and Preparation.
And this week we'll look at prophecy and next preparation.
Now, let me ask you a question: How long before you were born did your parents know YOU would be born? And I don't mean 'How long before you were born did your parents know they would have a baby?' I mean how long before the minute you were born did they know that baby was you?
You may have known you were having a boy or a girl since, I don't know, the 4th month of pregnancy, but EVERYTHING was known about Jesus for 1000s of years BEFORE even His mother was born!
The world is told about Jesus way back in Genesis 3:15 and His promised coming is made to Adam and Eve, who were of course the very first human beings! 'And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.'
This of course happened just after Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit, and God spoke these words to Satan, but what is interesting is that in a world full of genealogies of men, the Saviour of the world, the One who will crush Satan is to come from a woman!
And as we follow the story through the Old Testament we find out more and more about this promised Saviour, from the tribe He will be born into, the place where He will be born, we're told His name and even the fact that His mother will be a virgin!
From books dating back to 100s of years before His birth we find out EVERYTHING about His life, His works, the reason He came, His death and His resurrection!
Josh McDowell in his book, Evidence That Demands A Verdict, speaks of the probability that these Old Testament prophecies could be fulfilled in one individual:
"The following probabilities are taken from Peter Stoner in Science Speaks to show that coincidence is ruled out by the science of probability. Stoner says that by using the modern science of probability in reference to eight prophecies...We find that the chance that any man might have lived down to the present time and fulfilled all eight prophecies is 1 in 10 to the 17thpower.
That would be 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000. In order to help us comprehend this staggering probability, Stoner illustrates it by supposing that we take this many silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas.
They will cover all of the state two feet deep. Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up one silver dollar and say that this is the right one. Just the same chance that the prophets would have had of writing these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man, from their day to the present time."
Clearly the fact that many more than eight of these prophecies are fulfilled in Jesus Christ makes the probability much more unfathomable.
And we come to this 1 conclusion: The baby born that day to Mary was like no other. The baby born to Mary on that day, born in a cave surrounded by animals, whose first bed was a feeding trough, was none other than God Himself! God in human form! God in the flesh!
How do I know God loves me?
How do I know God will listen to my prayers?
How do I know God will answer my prayers?
How do I know God will help?
How do I know God cares for and about me?
How do I know God wants me, wants even me?
This here, His birth, His coming into human history is testament to that, and the fact that since the dawn of time He has promised to comes is testimony of the fact that you have always been on His mind!
