“Promise of Divine Power” – FBC Morning Light (12/24/2024)

Well, a good Tuesday morning to you, and Merry Christmas Eve. I hope you're looking forward to a wonderful celebration of Christmas. Maybe you're getting together with family and so forth tonight for Christmas Eve, maybe you're going to Christmas Eve service, but I just trust it'll be a Christ-centered time as you celebrate our Savior's birth.

Well, as I promised yesterday, each morning this week I want to share a Christmas meditation, and then our devotionals are going to be focused on Christmas. But I do encourage you to keep up with the Bible reading schedule, and I realized after the fact that I erred yesterday in saying that the passages for the day were the books of 2 Peter and Jude.

Those are actually what you're supposed to read today. Yesterday I was supposed to read the book of 2 Timothy. Nevertheless, today let me read you this quote from Thomas Watson, one of the Puritans from a few hundred years ago, speaking of Christ.

He says, "...that Christ should clothe himself with our flesh, a piece of earth which we tread upon. Oh, infinite humility! Christ's taking our flesh was one of the lowest steps of his humiliation. He humbled himself more in lying in the Virgin's womb than in hanging on the cross.

It was not so much for man to die, but for God to become man was the wonder of humility. He was made in the likeness of men.". Indeed, so he was. Today I'd like to share with you another one of the prophecies of the Old Testament related to the incarnation of the coming of Jesus.

The Prophecy of Divine Power in Isaiah 7

Yesterday we looked at the prophecy of hope that's fulfilled in Jesus, and today the prophecy of divine power. For this prophecy we look to the Old Testament prophet Isaiah in chapter 7. The context of this prophecy that's going to come in verse 14 shows the need for divine power.

Israel, God's people, are under attack. Judah specifically is under attack. We read this in verse 1, "...as it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham the son of Uzziah king of Judah, that Rezan king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Ramaliah king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to make war against it, but could not prevail against it.

And it was told to the house of David, saying, Syria's forces are deployed in Ephraim. So his heart and the heart of his people were moved as the trees of the woods are moved with the wind.". In other words, they're scared to death.

And why? Well, they've already got these forces of Ramaliah, Rezan the king of Syria, Pekah the son of Ramaliah, the king of Israel, they've come against, and now Syria's forces are deployed further again in Ephraim, and it's like they're surrounded, and they're certain to be destroyed.

They're filled with fear. They need divine intervention. Well, Isaiah continues with a prophecy of divine power that will be displayed in verses 4 through 7. The Lord says to Isaiah, you know, "...go meet Ahaz and say this to him, take heed and be quiet.

Do not fear or be faint-hearted for these two stubs of smoking fire or the fierce anger of Rezan and Syria and the son of Ramaliah.". Don't be afraid of them. Why? Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Ramaliah have plotted evil against you, saying, let us go up to Judah and trouble it, and let us make a gap in its wall for ourselves, and set a king over them, the son of Tabal.

Thus says the Lord God, "...it shall not stand, nor come to pass.". Well, here's the promise. Here's the prophecy of divine power, that God is going to overthrow these threats. Well, then the prophet says to this king, ask a sign from the Lord to verify that this is actually going to come to pass.

Ahaz says, I'm not going to presume upon the Lord to do such a thing. Well, the prophet said, I told you to do it. God wants you to do it. So therefore, since you won't do it, I'm going to give you a sign.

And here it is. The Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel. Well, this has long been recognized as a prophecy that would ultimately be filled in the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And that prophecy of divine power is indeed fulfilled in his birth. We read of this in Luke's Gospel, as Gabriel comes to Mary. And in coming to Mary, he tells her that God's power is going to come upon you, that you, as a virgin, are going to conceive.

So we read of this, Luke chapter 1, verse 26 and 27, the angel Gabriel was sent by God. We're going to say more about this tomorrow. But he's sent to a virgin, betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David.

The virgin's name was Mary. And why was he sent? Because, verse 31 says, Gabriel says to her, behold, you, Mary, a virgin, will conceive in your womb, and bring forth a son, and call his name Jesus. Well, of course, Mary is naturally befuddled by this.

How am I going to do this? I have never known a man. How is this going to happen? Verse 35 gives the answer. The angel answered and said unto her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the highest will overshadow you.

In other words, in the fulfillment of Isaiah 714, the prophecy of divine power is going to be fulfilled in you, a virgin conceiving, a virgin conception, God himself bringing this to pass. And in your son, the angel says to Mary, God will be with us.

He says to her, therefore also that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. And remember, the angel also told Joseph in Matthew chapter 1, call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

He is to be called Emmanuel, the prophet said. And this was a prophecy fulfilled, a prophecy of divine power fulfilled and verified at the birth of Christ. But this divine power is also realized since the birth of Christ.

It was, of course, realized through the various miracles that Jesus performed, turning water to wine, healing a nobleman's son, an impotent man, feeding 5 ,000, walking on the sea, giving sight to a man born blind, raising Lazarus from the dead.

This prophecy of divine power is also realized through the miracles seen at the death of Christ, darkness, earthquakes, the rending of the veil, the opening of the tombs. Oh, and even more profoundly, the prophecy of divine power is realized in the resurrection of Christ.

On the third day, he is resurrected, he's raised to life. But that power, that divine power, is further realized with everyone who comes to faith in Christ in the new birth. We see this in Ephesians chapter 2, as Paul writes about it, he says in verse 4, but God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses and sins, he made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved, and he raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are his workmanship, we are the product of the working power of God, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Oh yes, the prophecy of divine power is fulfilled in Christ, fulfilled as it's verified at his birth, fulfilled throughout the course of his life, his death, his resurrection, and it's realized, that divine power, realized even in the new birth of everyone who is raised from spiritual death in Christ Jesus.

Again, I trust that by God's grace you have experienced that wonderful divine power of new birth. Our Father and our God, we thank you today for the Lord Jesus Christ and his fulfillment of this prophecy of divine power, and thank you Father for that power effected in the lives of every sinner who will turn to Christ in faith and trust in him.

Thank you for these things, in Jesus' name, amen. All right, well listen, have a wonderful Christmas Eve. May God bless.