A Son is Given by Pastor Mark Kirk

Okay, all right. So Robin already started the recording, which means we are officially live and I'm gonna hit go live.

And I'm gonna make sure that that's going and that is in progress. There we go.

So I'm Terri Camerizal and I'm here on behalf of Creation Fellowship Santee.

We're a group of friends bound by our common agreement that the creation account as told in Genesis is a true depiction of how

God created the earth and all life in just six days, about 6 ,000 years ago.

We've been meeting in this online platform since May of 2020, and we've been blessed with a whole range of different speakers, scientists, authors, doctors, pastors, evangelists, apologists, so many people who love the

Lord and have a message to share. In fact, tonight is our 83rd different speaker and you can find links to most of our past presentations by going to tinyurl .com

forward slash CFS archives. That's C like creation,

F like fellowship, S like Santee archives. And there you'll find a list of all of the speakers we've had.

And most of them have the videos posted with links. You can also email us at creationfellowshipsantee at gmail .com

so that you get put on our list to be notified about our upcoming speakers.

Tonight, we're blessed to have a special presentation for Christmas time. It's our last presentation of 2023, but we've been working on a great list of speakers for 2024 and that will be posted soon as well.

Tonight, we're happy to have with us Pastor Mark Kirk of Calvary Chapel, Knoxville.

Pastor Mark has been pastoring in Knoxville since the church's inception in 1997 with a testimony that includes searching for meaning but only finding hollowness without Jesus.

Pastor Mark was so stirred by the verse by verse teaching he had heard when he traveled out

West that when he started the church in Knoxville, he knew that was the way to teach.

And he recently had done a series on Daniel. And so we asked him if he would come and talk to us about the first coming of Christ, starting with the few prophecies about it in the book of Daniel and he'll expound from there as well.

So with that Pastor Mark, I'm happy to turn it over to you. Well, great. It's so good to be with you guys.

I really am excited to be with you for a number of reasons. One, you guys take the word of God literally.

You believe it as it says it. And there's so few people that do that today. What a blessing that is to me to know you take the word of God literally.

And we talk about Genesis and other places because that's really the only way to take the word of God. That's how it was written. But also

I love creation science. It's something I've been involved in for a long time, although we're not doing anything on that tonight. And I would much rather stay out of the way and let those that are the qualified scientists talk about that.

But I do love it and love to be a part of it. But the subject that I was given tonight is out of Daniel doing the

Christmas story. And I have to admit when I got the message that you wanted a message out of Daniel on the Christmas story, I'm thinking, wow,

I've never been asked to do that before. I've never done that before. And you don't really hear, I've never heard a message on the

Christmas story out of Daniel. So although there are scriptures in the book of Daniel that definitely talk and relate to the

Christmas story. And so one of the things that I asked Terri if I could do, and she gave me permission was to work outside of Daniel as well, which we will be doing some.

So we have the full Christmas story, if you will, in this. But again, we're gonna be working through this kind of as a prophetic way, working through the

Bible, starting back even as early as Numbers and working all the way up through the Matthew and Luke accounts, if you will, not covering everything in detail, but stopping in Daniel and then looking at some other things and then coming back to Daniel where we're finished, looking at a son is given.

That's really the theme, a son is given. And it's interesting when I was thinking about Daniel and looking at a

Christmas message in Daniel, probably one of the most important and impacting verses in all of Daniel relating to the

Christmas story or Jesus coming to the earth is not as much about his birth as it is about his death.

And we don't think about that much when it comes to Christmas. We always think about, yes, a child is born and all this, and I understand that, but also remember without the death of Jesus on the cross, his birth would not do us any good because we need to have also that forgiveness of sin.

That's what it's about. He came, but he also came to die. So we're looking at it from the perspective of a child is born, a son is given, but also he's given not just for life, he's given also for death for us.

Now up on the screen, you'll see I have some verses. I decided to go ahead and include my screen with you guys because we're covering so many different things.

When you look at it prophetically and cover as much as we're gonna cover, I didn't want you to have to flip through your Bibles a million miles a minute or even have to take notes.

You can go back and look at it later. So I thought it'd be good to put these up on the screen. And again, it's a large font, which will make it easy for you to see while you're watching it.

But again, where I wanna begin is first of all, probably the most famous Christmas verse in all the Bible. And that is

Isaiah 9, six through seven. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.

And there's the theme. And note this, because we're gonna come back to this. And the government will be upon his shoulder.

And his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

And at the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end upon the throne of David and over his kingdom to order it and establish it with judgment and justice.

From that time forward, even forevermore, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

So again, we start with, again, what we see is probably the most famous Christmas passage, if you will, when we think about the

Christmas cards and what people mostly talk about. But there's a couple of very exciting things and important things in that.

And again, just to note those again, the son is given and the government will be upon his shoulders. We're gonna come back to that. And so I wanna kind of start this prophetic journey, if you will, working toward Daniel in Numbers 24, verses 15 through 19.

And this is the whole scene where Balaam has been asked by Balak. Balaam was a prophet that has been asked by Balak to curse the children of Israel as they're right outside the promised land, ready to enter and again, to defeat him in battle.

And so Balaam shows up, you know the story, and he begins to take up these oracles, but all he can do is bless the nation of Israel.

He can't curse them. But again, part of the Christmas story is in this. And notice what it says in verse 15.

So he, that is Balaam, took up his oracle and said, the utterance of Balaam, the son of Beor, and the utterance of the man whose eyes are opened, the utterance of him who hears the words of God and the knowledge of the

Most High, who sees the vision of the Almighty, who falls down with eyes wide open.

I see him, but not now, that is the Messiah. I behold him, but not near.

A star, note that, a star shall come out of Jacob. This is speaking of Jesus, the

Messiah, being referred to here as this star that will rise out of Jacob. A scepter shall rise out of Israel.

A scepter is a sign of authority and rulership. So he will be the ruler and the authority when he rises, and he will batter the brow of Moab, that's the

Jordan area today, destroy all the sons of Tumult, and Edom shall be a possession. Seir also, his enemy, shall be a possession.

While Israel does valiantly out of Jacob, one, that is the Messiah, shall have dominion and destroy the remains of the city.

And so this is speaking of not the first coming, but the second coming, again, which ties into the story that we're gonna look at today.

But notice this, in this prophecy, he mentions the star rising out of Jacob. Again, it's not only speaking of the

Messiah, but it's interesting that it comes to be seen by those in the

East as quite different. We see that, remember, in the Christmas story, what we'll get to in a moment, they saw his star, it says, from the

East, that is, they were in the East watching. This is very key when you realize this Balaam and where he was from, and that's where we see in Numbers 23 .7.

Notice it says he tells Balaam, or it tells us where Balaam is from, it says, and he took up his oracle and said,

Balaam, the king of Moab, has brought me from Aram. That is the region of Iran, Iraq, or Babylon, okay, which is where Daniel was taken, and that'll come in again in just a moment.

Notice from the mountains of the East, because he was in the East, that's where Balaam was from, and he says, come curse

Jacob for me and come denounce Israel. And so what I want you to see is the connection of the prophecy of the star with those in the

East going back as far as Balaam in Numbers, because while the actual star is speaking of the

Messiah, the prophecy may be why the wise men from the East in Babylon at the time

Jesus were born were looking for a star. See, it wasn't just from Balaam the connection came because he was from the

Iran or Babylon area, but in Daniel's day is where I wanna jump to now, getting to the book of Daniel, is a part of this as well, because after God spoke through Daniel, in Daniel chapter two, remember

Nebuchadnezzar gets this vision of this statue and showing the kingdoms of the earth leading up to the second coming of Christ and his thousand year reign, and the king is disturbed and he calls for Daniel, and God gives

Daniel the interpretation. And the king is so overwhelmed, King Nebuchadnezzar, by this interpretation, that look what he does, it says, starting in Daniel two, verses 46 through 49, it says this,

Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face, prostrate before Daniel, and commanded that they should present an offering and incense to him.

And the king answered Daniel and said, truly your God is the God of gods, the

Lord of kings and the revealer of secrets, since you could reveal this secret.

Now here's what's key in what we just saw with Balaam, notice this, then the king promoted Daniel and gave him many gifts and he made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, that is the area where Balaam was from, and the chief administrator over all the wise men.

Now guess what the wise men of Babylon were called? They were called the Magi. Again, they were known as magicians, they were known as soothsayers, et cetera, but they were known historically as the

Magi. So already you see where this is playing into the Christmas story, with the connection to Balaam seeing the star, now

Daniel being promoted as chief administrator over the Magi in the East in Babylon.

It says also Daniel petitioned the king and he said, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon, but Daniel sat in the gate of the king.

And so this is what's key to note here, Daniel has now been appointed to be ruler over all of the

Magi in the East. Now think about that, if Daniel was the ruler over all the

Magi in the East, then Daniel no doubt would have been teaching them the word of God, which again, the same area

Balaam was from, he would have been teaching them the Bible, he would have been teaching them about the prophecies of the coming

Messiah, which means the Magi would have heard about a star rising to be a sign for the

Messiah, or of course it truly represented the Messiah, but in the way they apparently saw it was also as a sign of the

Messiah. And so now we begin to see all the way back in numbers with Balaam, the connection of those in the

East being trained up in the Bible and in messianic prophecies about a star that they would follow later on that would lead them to the

Messiah. So you ever wonder why would they start following this star? Well, again, they had been primed, again, probably through Balaam's influence before he died.

And then of course, Daniel as well now being over these Magi. And now I wanna look at Daniel 9, verses 24 through 27, and the prophecy that the angel gave him concerning this prophetic timeline or the prophetic timeline of the nation of Israel.

What happened was Daniel was praying and saying, Lord, I need more information from you. And so the angel comes to Daniel and gives

Daniel basically what's gonna happen prophetically for the entire existence of the nation of Israel.

Now, there's gonna be a break in that, but he sums it up in these first few verses. And notice what he says, starting here in Daniel 9, we're looking at verses 24 through 27, but you see it there on your screen.

The angel said, 70 weeks are determined for your people and your holy city. That is for the nation of Israel, 70 weeks of years.

Now, this is how the Bible speaks differently. We have today what we call decades. That's a 10 year period.

They had what they called heptads, which are seven year periods. And oftentimes they would speak in those seven year increments, the way we would say,

I hadn't seen that person in a decade. They might say, I haven't seen that person in a heptad. Well, this is speaking of seven heptads, seven weeks of seven years.

So what it's talking about is a total of 490 years for the nation of Israel and the holy city,

God has determined prophetically. Now, again, it's been a lot longer than 490 years since this began, which we'll talk about those dates in a moment.

So that shows us there's been a break in that timeframe. And we'll talk about that as we get to it. But notice in this 490 years that God will deal prophetically with the nation of Israel, as the angels giving this prophecy to Daniel.

He says, it is to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy.

That is this summation from the time this 490 years begins until Messiah comes, everything will be sealed up and done leading into the millennial kingdom.

That's the summation. Now he goes on in these next verses, giving more details about what's gonna happen during that 490 years.

And Paul reveals later that there's a break in the 490 years that he calls the mystery of the gospel, the mystery of the church, the mystery break in time, if you will, the church era, if you will, that Paul talks about that describes what we're gonna see here in the rest of the prophecy.

But notice what the angel said. He said, because of this now, it's a 490 years, know therefore and understand, this is so amazing, that from the going forth of the command to restore and rebuild

Jerusalem or build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and 62 weeks.

That is 69 weeks out of those 70 weeks will be used up from the going forth of the command to restore and rebuild

Jerusalem and the coming of the Messiah. Now, he broke it up in two segments, 62 weeks and seven weeks, because of ways that he was dealing with the nation of Israel that we don't have time to get into tonight.

But for our purposes realize there's a 70 week period, making up 490 years, 70 weeks of years.

And now he speaks of 69 of those weeks of years or 483 years out of the 490 will be used up from the time the command goes forth to restore and rebuild

Jerusalem and the Messiah. Now, what's amazing about this, this happened in the days of Nehemiah.

And notice it describes Nehemiah's day, the street shall be built again and the wall, remember he built Nehemiah's wall, even in troublesome times.

I remember how much trouble he had. I mean, he was attacked from all sides. They tried to stop him militarily. They tried to stop him legally.

They did all kinds of things, but God gave them victory and allowed them to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem in record time, 52 days.

And you can still see the ruins of that in Jerusalem today if you visit. But here's what's so amazing about this.

We know now historically when that command was given. When the command to restore and build Jerusalem was given, it was

March 14th, 445 BC. And God always writes prophecy in prophetic years, which is 360 days.

So if you're a prophecy student and you're trying to figure out days based on 365, you're gonna be constantly confused because God from the beginning of the

Bible to the end of the Bible uses prophetic years, 360 days, because the Jewish calendar was based on a 30 -day month, et cetera.

So God uses that model, although we do it differently and with the rotation. God used it prophetically that way.

But it's interesting. If you go from that date of March 14th, 445 BC, it's 173 ,880 days.

And we now know from historical records that that is when Jesus rode in to Jerusalem, actually four days prior to that, because we now know he rode in April 6th,

AD 32. Sir Robert Anderson has done a great scholastic work on that if you wanna see that.

It's a book called The Coming Prince, again. And he rode in on the 6th of April, and it was four days later on the

Passover when he died on the cross. But what's amazing about this prophecy is it gives us the exact day that Jesus would ride into Jerusalem and the exact day that Messiah the

Prince would be put to death when he does. And again, notice the prophecy goes on.

He says, after the 62 weeks, that is the 7 and 62 or the 69, the 483 years after the wall started being rebuilt by Nehemiah, notice this,

Messiah shall be cut off. It is the word kerat in the Hebrew, and it means publicly executed.

Now you know why the Jews do not study the book of Daniel, and the rabbis tell them not to study the book of Daniel because it is so precise to the day of the

Messiah riding in, and even saying that he would be publicly executed after he rode in, they don't know what to do with it.

So yes, a son was given, the Messiah came in, but here's the other part of the story.

A son was given in death, even as in life. Look what it says, he shall be kerat, or publicly executed, but not for himself.

Who was he executed for? For you and I, and for the sins of the world. And then he goes on with the rest of what's gonna happen after this.

Again, we don't have time to get into it in detail, but I'll explain, he now speaks of this other prince, the Antichrist, remember

Jesus said, you won't receive me, but there's one coming after me, who will come in his own name, not the name of the father, but in his own name, him you will receive.

It speaks of him now, the one we know of as the Antichrist. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.

The end of it shall be with a flood, until the end of the war, desolations are determined. This is talking about the great tribulation and all the destruction the

Antichrist will bring, and that God will bring as he judges the earth during that time. Then he, that is the

Antichrist, this prince that will come in place of the Messiah, shall confirm a covenant with many for one week.

Now remember, they used up 69 of those 70 weeks, but there's one left.

So he says, he's gonna make a covenant with them for one week, after he was cut off, we now know, and Paul tells us and reiterates in the

New Testament with the church age, the prophetic time plot for the nation of Israel stopped.

So we finished 483 years of the promise to the nation, God still owes the nation of Israel seven years.

Now we're hearing about when those seven years will once again start, and it's gonna start when the Antichrist, here it says, confirms a covenant with many, that is the nation of Israel and the surrounding nations for one week, that final seven years.

And by the way, when you look at what's happening in the Middle East and all the turmoil with Israel right now, you can see how the world is ready to someone to step on the scene and negotiate a deal with Israel and the surrounding nations that they may have peace.

And it is going to culminate in that, the Bible tells us. But notice this, the final seven years in the middle of that week, the final seven years, he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering, that is the

Antichrist will stop them from giving sacrifice and offerings. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, even until the consummation, when it's all done, which is determined, that final day of the second coming is poured out on the desolate.

Now it's interesting, he says, it'll be on the wing of an abomination. The Bible tells us in Revelation that at the three and a half year point of that final seven years, the

Antichrist is gonna go onto the Temple Mount and literally say, I am God, bow down to me.

Worship me. And he's gonna set up an image of himself, the Bible tells us on the Temple Mount, that will be what

Jesus referred to as the abomination of desolation. And that's what Daniel is, the angel is referring to here in Daniel when it says on the wing of abominations, it's gonna be the abomination multiple, the fact of him declaring himself to be

God and also saying that setting up an image of himself that he will demand that the world worship for those last three and a half years.

Now, again, we're gonna take a short break from Daniel and jump into a couple of things that I'll read through rather quickly in Matthew and Luke through what we call the traditional

Christmas story, because I wanna point out the things that we saw now prophetically, not only from numbers, but in Daniel, happening in Matthew and in Luke, and then go back to finish in Daniel.

But notice what it says here. Of course, we're all familiar with the general Christmas stories at this time. This is Matthew two, verses one through 12.

It says, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, behold, notice this, wise men from the

East came to Jerusalem. Now, remember these wise men, it's the Magi is the word.

Where did the Magi come from? We talked about the influence possibly of Balaam back in numbers. We also talked about Daniel being over the

Magi and teaching the Magi no doubt the word of God and no doubt this very prophecy.

I believe God did that to have them watching for this star, even though the star really is the

Messiah. They were taking it as a double meaning, not just the Messiah, but also something that would lead them to him, some kind of sign, which again,

God gave them in the heavens. And notice it says, wise men of the Magi from the East, the Babylon area, came to Jerusalem saying, where is he who has been born king of the

Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, that is from the

East and have come to worship him. And when Herod the king heard this, he was troubled and all

Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and the scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the

Christ was to be born. And they said in Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet, but you

Bethlehem in the land of Judah are not the least among the rulers of Judah.

For out of you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. And then

Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, determined from them what time the star appeared.

He wanted again to get a timetable. And by the way, it was again, he killed, that's why he killed everyone from two years old and younger because of the star appearing.

He wanted to make sure the Messiah or this challenge to his kingliness, if it did exist, would be destroyed.

And he sent to Bethlehem and said, go and search carefully for the young child. And when you found him, bring back word to me that I may come and worship him also.

Now, as you know, he had no desire to worship him. He simply desired to destroy him. And so he wanted to go back and again, wipe him out.

That's why he went and killed all the babies, two years old and younger. And we see it prophesied about Rachel weeping for her children as the soldiers came in and indiscriminately destroyed them.

It's interesting when you read this story, it wasn't just those there in Bethlehem that were killed. It were those, the whole surrounding region.

And while we sing about silent night, holy night, in reality, it was anything but a silent night.

It was a horrible night when the Roman soldiers showed up. Now, again, the night the Lord was born, again, probably was, but the night they wrote in anything but silent and holy was taking place, it was demonic and the enemy trying to wipe out the

Messiah. And notice when they heard the king, they departed. And behold, the star which they had seen in the east went before them, and note this, till it came and stood over where the young child was.

Now, note this, I don't wanna get too far off of where we're going with this, but I do wanna point this out about the star because this is where the star comes in from Balaam.

And we're, again, I believe Daniel talked about the prophecy of Messiah. And now we're seeing this coming to pass, leading to the true star,

Jesus, our Messiah, and God using that. But it's interesting when people talk about what was the star?

And again, some of the scientists and people that look, could it have been some kind of rotation of the planets and the way that it went?

And I've seen these things where the star comes in. And again, it's not so much trying to make a point on that, but I mean, really, when you think about it, what star have you ever seen that you could follow?

Or what star have you ever seen that you could get under? And what star could you actually go to that stood over someone's house and you could recognize this is the house that's under the star?

It's impossible. And what is my point? The only way you could really follow a star and it leads you a direction, you could in general,

I guess, but when you got closer, and especially over a house, I've been to Israel numerous times now, and they, again, today, and even in that day, they build a house that's very, very close together.

And in that day, there would have been one right next to the other. The only way you could have seen a star over a house where the young child was is for that star to be about 30 feet above the house or so.

It couldn't have been much higher. Now, why am I saying this? I believe, and it's nothing I would argue over theologically or divide over.

It's just interesting to me when you look at the reality of what this star must have been, even as the angels brought all these messages to Daniel and to Mary and to all, and Joseph and all the angels that came and then to the shepherds in the fields,

I believe this star was none other than an angel. And it may very well have been Gabriel. And again, that's interesting because again, we see in the book of Job that the stars are referred to as angels and angels as the stars.

Now, don't get me wrong. Stars are stars. They're the things we see flashing in the sky. Those aren't angels.

Those are real stars. But at the same time, angels are referred to as stars. And I believe the only way this could have been followed and been that close to a house to recognize what house it was, it had to be down very, very low and not something we'd see way up in the sky, which is why

I believe that it was probably an angel. And I personally believe that it was Gabriel because Gabriel was the one who brought all the messages.

You know, when they were asking me what the title of this subject would be, I thought, you know this, a son is given, but another title that I was bantering around and even thinking maybe

I should change it to is angels we have heard on high. We're not spending that much time in these passages about that.

But when you have all the angels that came and spoke again to Daniel and then again to the shepherds and then to Mary and then to Zechariah and all the things that happened, again, truly angels we have heard on high brought the message and I believe this angel was from on high leading them.

And what even adds to me as far as that being probably an angel here, verse 10, notice it apparently disappeared for a while because notice it says in verse 10, when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy.

That's after they were already there at Jerusalem. Apparently for a moment, they couldn't find the star and then suddenly the star reappeared.

Well, if the star was something simply up in the heavens, it wouldn't have left and then suddenly come back. So either way,

I find that very interesting. It says that when they came into the house, they saw the young child.

Again, this means a child that's a little bit older and because Herod killed the children two years old and younger, this probably was a couple of years later when the

Magi actually arrived. So you would have had the birth of the Lord, the angels and all that happened and then they would have began to travel and not gotten there till probably a couple of years later.

And the reason most scholars believe that is Herod calculated the time that the star appeared and then he went down to Bethlehem and killed all the children two years old and younger.

So apparently he had calculated it that much in advance and now we see he's already in a home.

He's no longer in the stable. He's there with Mary, his mother and they fell down and they worshiped him.

And when they'd opened their treasures, they presented gifts to him, gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Then being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way.

So again, one of the more known stories, if you will, of the Christmas story there in Matthew, I wanna run also through Luke again before we work our way back through Revelation and back to Daniel, but I wanna look at it from another angle here in Luke chapter two, starting in verse eight, notice what it says.

Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night.

And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them. Again, was it Gabriel? Well, we know he's the messenger to Israel.

Could have been some other angel, but I think probably Gabriel here. We'll find out one day in the kingdom. But behold, an angel of the

Lord stood before them and the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were greatly afraid.

And then the angel said to them, do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, which will be to all people.

For there is born to you this day in the city of David, a savior who is

Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign to you. Notice it's a sign. You will find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.

Now, why is that a sign? To find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, that was very normal.

When babies were born that day, what they would do is they would rub them in salt. It was a purifier. They would rub them in salt and they would wrap them up in strips of cloth, very tightly, even as they still, when you take your baby home from the hospital or right after it's born,

I guess I would say, they'll take it and wrap it up like a little burrito. I know with my girls, they did that. And it's very cute, but they wrap them up.

They did that in that day, but they would put salt on them and then wrap them up very tightly. And then when they laid him in a manger, we now know literally, and again,

I've seen these from going to Israel, it wouldn't have been a wooden trough. They didn't use the wood for that. This would have been made out of concrete.

It would have been a concrete feeding trough in reality. So they would have laid some straw in there for softness, no doubt, laid him down in this concrete trough wrapped in this wrapping, if you will.

And the angel tells the shepherds, that's going to be assigned to you. Now, why would that be assigned? Because remember, we said the theme tonight is a son is given for life, but a son was also given for death.

What happened 33 years later? Well, when they put him on the cross, they took him down from the cross and they put ointments on him and they wrapped him in linen cloths and they laid him in a concrete container or trough, if you will, in a tomb.

And it was assigned to them the same way he came is going to be the same way that he's going to leave wrapped and in the tomb.

And look at verse 13. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly hosts praising

God and saying glory to God in the highest and on the earth, peace and goodwill, literally in the language, toward those who love him.

So it's interesting, this is another great Christmas card, you know, headline, peace on earth and goodwill toward men.

But really in reality, it doesn't say goodwill toward men in general. It says goodwill toward those who please God, goodwill toward those who are right with God.

Now, again, it's available to all, but we have to come to Christ before we have that goodwill, if you will, and the forgiveness of sins.

Now we jump to verse 21. Notice what it says. And when eight days were completed for the circumcision of the child, his name was called

Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. So he would have been eight days down there in Bethlehem and then travel on the eighth day up to the temple mount because that's when they circumcised the young baby, boys on the eighth day.

And so they would have traveled up there, had him circumcised and gone back down to Bethlehem and remain there for a couple of years in completing the story.

But this is where they brought him up there for this ceremony of the cutting away of the flesh and that picture of living by the spirit, if you will, the circumcision of the

Jewish men. And again, as a baby here. And notice this, when the days of repurification, according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the

Lord. As it is written in the law of the Lord, every male who opens the womb shall be called holy to the

Lord and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves and two young pigeons.

Now it's interesting that they gave a pair of turtle doves and two young pigeons. That was the poor person's offering when you brought your child to be circumcised.

And you say, why would it be a poor person's offering? Didn't they give them gold, frankincense and myrrh? Yes, but remember to put the story chronologically, first he was born, eight days later is what we're reading now.

Then he went back and probably a year and a half to two years later, the Magi showed up and gave him the gold, frankincense and myrrh.

So they didn't have the money yet at this time, but it's neat to see that God provided what they needed for this beautiful gift that he gave them from heaven before they left

Bethlehem. Then verse 25, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And this man was just in about waiting for the consolation of Israel.

And the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the

Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. How amazing, wouldn't it be great for God to tell us that?

You're not gonna see death until you see the Lord's return. You know, personally, I believe we are gonna see the Lord's return. I believe this is the generation.

And there's a lot of reasons for that, but he was told you're gonna see it the first time, not the second, but the first time.

How exciting that must have been for Simeon as he waited, because again, a son is given, but notice the story doesn't stop there.

So he came by the Spirit in the temple. And when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law, he took him up in his arms and blessed

God and said, Lord, now you're letting your servant depart in peace according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation.

Here he is, the Messiah, which you have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the

Gentiles. And again, that's something that would have been shocking to the Jews of that day. Although the scripture says it, they really were looking only to the

Jewish people to be saved. But notice as the Spirit speaks through him, it's for us as well, a light to bring revelation to the

Gentiles and the glory of your people, Israel. And Joseph and his mother marveled at those things which were spoken of him.

And then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother, behold, this child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel.

And notice this, for a sign which will be spoken against. Again, we talked about the sign that was given of the Lord in his death.

Yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul also.

So now we see Simeon by the Spirit of God, prophesying that Jesus will be pierced by a sword in his side.

And what a beautiful picture that is of the Lord being pierced in his side. Because again, remember it was through his death and his blood on the cross that the bride of Christ was born.

And it was from his side. Remember when God made Adam, he put Adam in a deep sleep and took from his side and made

Eve. And now when we see Jesus on the cross, we see he's pierced and blood and water, the things were made out of, come flowing out of his side exactly where the first Adam got his bride.

Now we have the last Adam, his bride being birthed through his sacrifice on the cross. And again, from his side being poured out for us, if you will, and the birth of his bride.

What a beautiful picture there. Even as Jesus' soul will be pierced, he says your soul will be pierced as well.

And it's interesting when you look again, and probably you've done this in many of your studies with all of the scientists that you've had.

When you look at the pericardium, you look at what's going on around the heart and the increase of fluid that was there when

Jesus died. The fact that water came out with the blood shows fluid had gathered around his heart, which really quite literally shows that his heart was, it comes under great duress and anxiousness.

And literally, I think we could say that that proves that Jesus died of a broken heart, but it was a heart for us.

And it was a heart that gave birth to his bride, the church, you and I, and was spilled there on the cross.

But he says to Mary, now Mary, you're gonna also have your soul pierced. She didn't know yet how

Jesus would die. And maybe even that he would die at this point, fully understanding that. But when it happens, you'll see that he's pierced.

And no doubt when she saw him on the cross that day, and they stuck that spear in his side, this probably came screaming back to her mind and her heart, where Simeon gave the prophecy of her own soul being pierced.

And notice he says, and this will happen, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.

And that is again, when it comes to Jesus, and what are we gonna do with our sin? And what

Jesus did for us on the cross, it reveals our hearts. Have we confessed our sin? Have we repented?

Do we have a true relationship with him? So again, now we've seen his first coming as he was given for life and for death.

But I wanna complete the story tonight by looking at Revelation. Like I said, and then we're gonna ultimately go back into Daniel when we finish.

But if you remember where we started tonight in Isaiah 9, we saw that it said, not only would a son be given, but that the government would be upon his shoulders.

Here's a question I want you to think about. Has that ever yet been fulfilled? I think a lot of people, when they think about that verse, they don't think about whether or not it's ever been fulfilled.

They just go, yeah, Jesus came, the government will be upon his shoulders. There's even, I think a popular worship song that's out now that says something about the government is now on his shoulder.

And it doesn't make a big deal of it to me. But when I hear that, I go, no, that's not exactly theologically correct.

Because although the government will be on his shoulders, the government has not yet ever been on Jesus' shoulders.

He came the first time to die. When he comes back the second time, then he will rule and reign.

Then the government will be upon his shoulders. And the Bible says he will rule and reign for 1 ,000 years after he returns with us in the millennial kingdom.

So during that 1 ,000 year reign, that's when the government will rest upon his shoulders. So looking at the prophecy of Daniel, the 490 years, this is where it ends.

This is where it comes to a close from the time that Nehemiah was given the command to rebuild the wall,

March 14th, 445 BC, until the second coming and that long 2 ,000 year break of what we know as the church age when

Jesus was publicly executed. And then the time clock prophetically restarts for that final week or seven years when that covenant is signed by the

Antichrist, like we saw in Daniel chapter nine. Then at the end of that, Jesus comes back now to fulfill all of it as prophesied in Daniel and to take his throne.

And that's what we see here in Revelation chapter 19, verses 11 through 16. And notice what it says.

Now I saw heaven opened and behold, a white horse. Here comes the Lord. And he who sat on him was called faithful and true.

And in righteousness, he judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire and on his head were many crowns.

He had a name written that no one knew except himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood.

That's interesting. And his name is called the word of God. Again, we know that he's the word of God. John one tells us that, but his robe dipped in blood.

Again, there's a battle that we don't have time to get into now, but Jesus again, engages in battle.

Even just before he comes down to put his foot on the Mount of Olives, we see in Isaiah chapter 63, where he's protecting the

Jews down in Petra. So he will already have his robes dipped in blood when we're there with him coming back in the second coming.

Coming back for what they call the battle of Armageddon. But again, Revelation tells us he's simply gonna speak and it will be over with.

So that's not much of a battle, but notice in the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed him on white horses.

Guess who that army is? That's you and I. How do we know that? In Revelation, it says that the armies of heaven, the people of heaven are clothed in fine white linen.

And the scripture tells us that when the Lord comes back in the second coming, that he will come with 10 ,000 of his saints.

What that means is, we will leave the wedding supper of the lamb that's been going on for seven years while God's been dealing with Israel.

We will get on horses with the Lord, ride through the universe. I always try to picture that in my mind, how amazing that's gonna be, just passing all the planets and the stars.

Who knows what that's gonna be like. We'll travel through the universe. We'll see the earth getting closer and closer.

We'll come down to the earth. We will be with the Lord on white horses. And by the way, if you can't ride a horse right now, don't worry, you'll have the ability then.

And we're gonna come with the Lord. And notice this, verse 15, out of his mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it, he should strike the nations.

So he's not even gonna, he is gonna get involved physically with the battle down at Petra, in protecting the

Jews that have been hiding out those last three and a half years. Again, that's a whole nother prophetic study. And so if you don't know about that,

I encourage you to go listen to a good teacher on the book of Daniel. We have Daniel online at Calvary Chapel, Knoxville.

But any of your favorite teachers that have talked through Daniel, they'll explain that. And really

Revelation talks more specifically. I would encourage you to go through Revelation on that to get a better picture. But notice this, out of his mouth goes a sharp sword, that he should strike the nations.

And he himself will rule them with a rod of iron. That means it will be the ultimate rule of Jesus Christ on the earth.

Are you ready for that or what? I'm ready. I want him to come right now. I mean, when we see this crazy world, how messed up it is, all the crazy things that are happening, how wonderful it's going to be when suddenly the

Lord comes back to rule and reign and run the earth in true righteousness for a thousand years and then on into eternity in the new heaven and the new earth, as it tells us in Revelation.

But the rod of iron shows the ultimate authority. He's going to be, the buck stops with him. He's the ultimate authority.

And he himself treads the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of almighty God. I think that's relating down to the battle in Petra.

Again, maybe something within speaking here as well. And he has on his robe and on his thigh, a name written

King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Don't you love that? Jesus is the King of Kings.

He is the Lord of Lords. Praise the Lord. I'm so excited about the

Lord coming back and seeing him in that glory and in that way. And that's what we're going to see him at, not only the thousand years, but we're going to see that throughout the rest of eternity.

Now, because it's supposed to be a study in Daniel and we have been in Daniel, I know I've cheated a lot, but like I said, it's kind of hard to get the full story out of Daniel.

I want to go back now and end with Daniel as we finish tonight. And that is we're going to be looking in Daniel 7, verse 13 to 14.

And once again, this is when Daniel was getting one of his visions from the Lord. And notice what he says about the vision.

So we saw the second coming, we saw the Lord coming back ruling and reigning, but what about the rest of eternity?

Daniel now by the angel, or rather by this vision, sees the rest of eternity and tells us what's going to be happening.

And here's what it says again in Daniel 7, verses 13 and 14. Daniel said, I was watching in the night visions and behold, one like the son of man.

That of course is Jesus Christ coming with the clouds of heaven. Here's the second coming. He sees him coming in the second coming.

And he came to the ancient of days. We see now that mystery of the Trinity, the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit, although one yet somehow having that separation where he came to the ancient of days and they brought him near before him.

And then to him, to Jesus, that is, was given dominion and glory and a kingdom.

That's the thousand year reign that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.

Now the government will rest upon his shoulders. And Isaiah 9, 7 will be fulfilled that famous Christmas passage.

And notice he goes beyond that though. There's the thousand year reign. Now he goes beyond the thousand year reign. Look what he says.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his kingdom, the one which shall not be destroyed.

So again, we have quite the amazing future ahead of us. The Bible says, again, as we get closer to the last days, the rapture of the church is going to take place.

We will go up to heaven to have the wedding supper of the lamb for that final seven years.

That God will then be dealing with the nation of Israel that we read about in Revelation and the rest of the planet, if you will, in God's wrath during the great tribulation.

All that goes on with the Antichrist, everything that happens. And then sometime there, when it gets to the end of the meal, the

Lord's going to say to us, settle up, it's time to go. And we're going to get on white horses. We're going to ride with the

Lord leading us through the universe, watching the earth get ever closer as these amazing stars and constellations and black holes and all these beautiful things that we see in science passing through them, coming down to the earth, getting larger and larger.

Suddenly there's Armageddon. Suddenly there's Jerusalem. The Lord speaks. He wipes out all the armies all the way from Armageddon all the way down to Petra.

And then he comes down, us with him, sets his foot on the Mount of Olives. And the Bible says when he does that, the

Mount of Olives will split into the whole topography of Jerusalem will change. It'll be raised up as the highest mountain on the earth with other mountains brought down, it says.

And it'll be a massive platform that the Lord will then gather the remaining nations of the world that made it through the great tribulation before him.

He will divide the sheep and the goats. Those who have made it through the tribulation and gave their life to him will get to enter into the kingdom with us because we will already be there having been taken in the rapture and in our new bodies.

Those that do not, the goats, will be put into a place that they'll be held till the final day of judgment, that place of Hades until the lake of fire at the end of the thousand years.

I know I'm putting a lot of scripture out there and a lot of prophecy or whatever. But again, more than that, I'm trying to get you to just to think of the glory that awaits.

And then the Lord will take his throne and he will rule and reign with us with him for a thousand years on this earth.

And again, this earth is fallen. The Bible says he's gonna restore it. What is the restored earth gonna look like?

Hey, there's some pretty amazing places right now on the earth. Think about it when it's restored to its pristine, the way that the

Lord intended it to be. And then of course, after that, we live forever with the

Lord. So we have a lot to celebrate. We have a lot to celebrate here at the time of Christmas. Yes, a son is given. And we rejoice that a son has been given because it's because he came that we now have hope, but he also was given for death.

And if Jesus had not died for us on the cross, truly his first coming wouldn't have mattered to us because we wouldn't have been forgiven of our sins and we wouldn't have been able to enter into the kingdom with the

Lord forever. So rejoice that your King came, but rejoice that your

King is coming again and he will rule and reign forever and ever, you with him in the new kingdom.

So Father, I thank you again for just the encouragement, the celebration we can have at Christmas in realizing what you have done and the glory

Lord that you have and that awaits. But there's a lot of reasons to be discouraged in our day and age.

Help us to get our eyes on you now in this Christmas season and beyond, not for what's going on in the world to have hope, but to have our eyes on you and the hope set before us in your faithfulness to us.

Lord, the end of this nonsense at some point and the coming glorious kingdom that will not only last a thousand years on this earth, but on the new heaven and a new earth forever and ever and ever.

And I say, Lord Jesus, come quickly and we ask it in Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. Wow, that was a lot to unpack. I know it was a lot.

That's why it's good to have it to look back at later. Yes, definitely for sure. It was a nice tour through the whole

Bible. I mean, we started with Balaam. Here's a question for you that Robin has wondered, and I don't know what you think as a pastor in studying.

One of the things that we've observed about the story of Balaam and his donkey is that he wasn't surprised when his donkey spoke to him.

Do you think that animals used to be able to talk? You know, look,

I can't say for sure because the Bible doesn't make it clear, but I think that that's not that far outside of the boundaries of possibility.

And again, the reason I say that is the mystery of the serpent. We know that it was Satan inhabiting or speaking through, right?

But the serpent spoke to Eve, and the serpent spoke in a way she understood. And again, we know it was

Satan, but it also had some connection to a real serpent because part of the judgment of the serpent was that it would be crawling on its belly now, which snakes do.

So there's this weird mystery that we don't have the full picture of, but is it possible? I definitely believe that it's possible, and we won't find out until the kingdom.

You know, even when you talk to your animal today, your dog or whatever, they're so in tune with what you're saying. They connect, and they know.

And you wonder, if they could say something, you know, would they know what to say? So it's going to be interesting to find out.

I don't know that I know exactly, but I don't think that's out of the realm of possibility. The serpent was actually different than the snake, and that's why it was extended.

Yes, I mean, technically, I know what you're saying technically, but I mean, there's some connection there to when he spoke the judgment against the serpent.

Right, yeah. No, I mean, some people say that it's a silliness because snakes just naturally crawl on their bellies, but I always point out to them that it was actually a serpent in it.

And they do find certain types of snakes that have bones that could have been feet at one time.

But anyways, about Balaam, yeah, I always, whenever we talk about Balaam, I always wonder about his donkey because, you know, he wasn't surprised at all.

You know, I mean, if my dog actually spoke to me, I'm pretty sure I would die on the spot.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's a very interesting story. And that question has come up before. And again, because, again, some would say the serpent did indeed possibly have legs.

And, you know, there may be something there more going on than we know. Thank you, yeah, yes.

My dog gives me lots of judgmental looks. I wouldn't want her to speak to me.

Yeah, what would they say if they could, right? Okay, our friend

Jeff here in Zoom has a question. He says he'd like to know the resource that explains the exact date for the order given for the rebuilding of Jerusalem.

Yes, that is a great one. Sir Robert Anderson was a scholar in Britain and he was an exalted scholar in Britain, wrote a book called

The Coming Prince. And what he does is he does a great, very scholarly work in that book, breaking it down in the 360 -day years, including leap years and all the things that would matter, and goes back to the resource of the date of when the wall, the command was given.

It wasn't when the wall started, but if you'll notice, it was when the command was given to rebuild the wall. That's the date that starts there.

And from that date is where the days come to the AD 32, which by the way is interesting because even in Roman history, there are records that you can go look up now that talk about a worldwide darkness that took place on April 10th, which again was four days after the

Lord wrote in, which would have been the day of Passover, which when he was sacrificed on the cross. And you can find records today of that, where they actually talk about this darkness that wasn't just there in Jerusalem, but they say as far as in Europe and everything, they don't know why they still went dark for those hours.

And again, coincides with Sir Robert Anderson's calculations of the time when Christ would have written in. So it's very interesting.

Who wrote about the darkness? I have heard that too, but I like to... So who did you say?

The Romans wrote about it? Yes, I wish I had those notes in front of me if I'd known that question. When we talked,

I put down, I got that information. I have that in my notes. I wouldn't have time to look for it right now. No, that's fine.

I've got to find it and send it later. But yes, it's not just the Romans. There's more than one account of the darkness that happened more than just there in Jerusalem, in Europe.

And the Romans are one of them that recorded. And that's so interesting to me. And I believe that it happened.

A lot of times you just wonder how people actually missed the birth of Jesus when so much was foretold.

And then... Go ahead. No, I was gonna say, it really is amazing. When you look at what, if they had taken the calculations that Sir Robert Anderson did, as meticulous as the

Jewish priests are, I mean, theoretically, they could have literally been counting down the days and said, look, if anybody rides in on this day on a donkey and everybody's going, blessed is he who comes in the name of the

Lord, we've got our guy. So technically they could have done that. They could have counted down to the day.

And that's why the Lord was so shocked they didn't know. Remember, he wept over them. And it's interesting what the Lord said. He said, if only you had known this your day.

Yes. Because they should have known the day. And I see that Linda wants her horse to speak to her.

Wilbur. And Joyce would like a copy of your

Word document. Sure. Sure. Who do I send that to? Just send that to you,

Terri? Hey, you can send that to me. Yeah, if you want to send that to me and I'll convert it to a

PDF to make it a little more universal. And then Robin can send it out to our email list if people would like it.

I would like the Word so I can copy and paste, Terri. All right, we'll do both. Great.

Yeah, I teach every other Sunday, fourth through sixth graders.

And last Sunday I did the birth of John the Baptist for Toad. And so I went through my friendship with God Bible, the messianic prophecies for John the

Baptist. Right. And there's like three scriptures for the prophecy, but then there was like a whole bunch on the fulfillment of it.

So I printed that out for the kids so that they could take that home and look at that and see that it was,

John the Baptist was prophesied before. And then this was a fulfillment. And then

I'm not teaching this next Sunday, but then the Sunday after that, I'm teaching on John the

Baptist being born. So that's great.

She wants to use it for teaching, which is good. And is that okay, Pastor Kirk? Oh yeah, absolutely.

Oh yeah, I mean, again, I think that that's what we're supposed to do. We pass it on to each other and the ideas get the word out there.

Excellent, thank you very much. You're welcome. And Linda, what would you want your horse to say to you?

I think she might - Remember, we're still recording. Oh, that's right. Okay, thank you. Yeah, so Linda, you can answer, but just keep it clean.

Well, we can probably end recording. Yeah, let's go ahead. And then we can ask questions.

Oh, Linda wants her horse to let her know how he got hurt. Oh. Now that would be helpful, huh?

Okay, so let's do this. Pastor Mark, one more time, can you please tell everybody who's watching, where you pastor and what kind of resources that you have available, whether close by.

I heard that you do a podcast also. So if you could let people know how to find you, that would be great.

Yeah, so the Calvary Chapel Knoxville is where we are. And of course, we have our main website that has all of our ministries and everything on there.

You get a lot of information on there. And really, our resources are all on there, I think, as well. But we also have a very convenient site to go to, thewaymedia .net.

Thewaymedia .net. And if you go there, it's got all of the teachings of many different books of the

Bible that I've gone through line by line, verse by verse. We also have on there, we do a prophecy podcast every

Friday. We call it Signs of the Times. It's a live prophecy show that runs every Friday from 1 .30

to 2 .30 Eastern time. And again, it's recorded and can be downloaded as well.

And again, what we do is we look at prophecy and a lot of what's happening in current events around the world at the time.

As a matter of fact, I did a recorded show this morning because we typically do it on Friday, but I did it before I left to record one since I knew

I'd be doing traveling and then be here. But yeah, so you can find those resources on Calvary Chapel Knoxville or at that easier at thewaymedia .net,

the teachings, the resources, and the podcast for the radio show on there as well. Okay, perfect.

And I added that in the comments on the Facebook stream. So people can find it there. So, and once again, we are

Creation Fellowship Santee, and this is our last presentation for 2023, but we're working on quite a list for 2024.

So be looking for that to come out soon. You can also find more information and look for that list once it's available by typing in tinyurl .com

forward slash CFSantee, that's C like creation, F like fellowship, Santee is spelled

S -A -N -T -E -E. And you can also email us at creationfellowshipsantee at gmail .com.

So with that, we're gonna go ahead and close this last program of the year.

So we wish you all a Merry Christmas and be looking for opportunities to shine your light for Jesus.