FBC Daily Devotional – December 17, 2020

The day is going well, your week also, we're enjoying some nice dry weather,

I say enjoying that's a matter of perspective, isn't it? I know our kids would love to see some snow to go out and play in and would love for a white

Christmas, but that's certainly being held off these days. And some of us who have to get out and shovel and deal with that stuff are, you know, we're not too sad about the lack of the white stuff.

Nevertheless, I know it does put us kind of in a Christmas mood when we see the snow fall.

Anyway, we've been talking about, speaking of Christmas, we've been talking about yesterday some of the prophecies, the

Old Testament prophecies, that relate to Christ's coming, the birth of Christ and why he came and so forth.

And speaking of prophecy, I remember seeing several months ago now, before the election, a report from this guy who was a prognosticator regarding election outcomes.

And he was the guy who got it right in 2016 when everybody else was saying, you know,

Trump doesn't stand a chance, Clinton's going to win this election. And this guy says, nope, Trump's going to win.

And then a few months ago, this same guy came out and said, Trump's going to win this election. And, of course, depending on which side of the political aisle you might happen to fall, you either love that prophecy or you loathed it.

And now here we are over a month after the election, and some are saying he got it right.

Some are saying he got it wrong. Again, I guess it depends on which side of the political aisle. Well, when it comes to the

Lord's prophecies, his prognostications, his knowing ahead of time, we never have to wonder, we never have to question whether or not his prophecies are going to come to pass.

Indeed, they will. And today I want to look at the Old Testament prophecy that was given related to divine power in relationship to Christmas.

There's a prophecy of divine power. And that prophecy is given long before the birth of Christ in Isaiah chapter 7 and verse 14.

It's a very familiar verse this time of year. The prophet Isaiah says, Therefore the

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

Emmanuel. Now you look in the context of that verse, and it's clear that there is a need for divine power.

Back in Isaiah 7, verse 1, Judah, God's people, are under attack. It says,

In the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah. Reason, the king of Syria, and Pekah, the king of Ramaliah, the king of Israel, the son of Ramaliah, the king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not yet mount an attack against it.

So there is this threat. Judah is under attack. And as a result of, a consequence of that attack,

Judah is full of fear. Verse 2 says, When the house of David, that is the king who is on the throne of Judah at this time, when he was told

Syria is in league with Ephraim, the heart of Ahaz, that is the king, and the heart of his people, shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.

They are filled with a tremendous amount of fear. So that context shows the need for divine power.

And the prophecy comes as a promise of the display of divine power.

Now, right away, immediately, there is a prophecy of victory. And it is sure, and it's coming soon.

In verses 4 -7, the prophet says this, Say to him, be careful, to Ahaz, be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart faint, because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, at the fierce anger of reason, and Syria, and the son of Ramaliah.

Because Syria, with Ephraim, and the son of Ramaliah, has devised evil against you, saying,

Let us go up against Judah, and terrify it, and let us conquer it for ourselves, and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it.

Thus says the Lord God, It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass.

So there is a prophecy in the midst of this fear, that the threat of defeat and destruction is not going to come to pass.

The Lord's going to defeat them. But then the prophecy of divine power, especially as it's related to Christmas, is also seen in the sign given.

And that sign is in verse 14. The virgin shall conceive and bear a son.

A virgin shall conceive? One who has not known a man will conceive?

How is that possible? It's only possible by divine power. And then further, the prophecy is that his name will be called

Emmanuel, that is, God with us. So this child conceived in a virgin, born of a virgin, will be called

God with us? He will be God with us? How in the world is that possible? Well, it's possible only through divine power.

So this is a prophecy of divine power. And that divine power then is verified in the birth of Christ.

In Luke chapter 1, verses 26 through 31, the birth of Jesus is foretold when the angel

Gabriel comes to Mary, this virgin who is engaged to Joseph, but they had never come together, and tells her that she is going to be with child, and that child is going to be conceived in her not because of any relations with Joseph, but because of the divine work of the

Holy Spirit, the power of the Holy Spirit within her. So God himself is going to bring this to pass.

And he says in verse 35, the angel says to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the

Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born shall be called Holy, the

Son of God. And he will be Emmanuel. He will be

Emmanuel. So in her son, God will be with us.

So this divine power is verified in the birth of Christ. And that divine power, prophesied in Isaiah, verified at the birth of Christ, is realized since the birth of Christ in the individual who will trust him.

We see that realization of divine power since the birth of Christ through the miracles that he performed in his life, turning water to wine, healing a nobleman's son, healing an impotent man, feeding 5 ,000 people, walking on the water, restoring, giving sight to a man who was born blind, raising a dead man,

Lazarus, from the dead. All of these indicators, expressions of divine power as God with us exercises that divine power.

It's also realized in the miracles surrounding his death. The darkness in the middle of the afternoon, the earthquakes, the rending of the veil, the opening of the tombs.

Oh, but of course that divine power is also realized since the birth of Christ in his resurrection, literally dead, placed in a tomb there, on that shelf, in that tomb.

From there he arises. He lives by divine power.

But then that prophecy of divine power is also realized since the birth of Christ in the miracle of the new birth.

Paul writes of this in Ephesians 2, verses 4 and following. Listen to what he says. He says, even when we were dead in trespasses, we were dead,

God made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved.

And he raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ.

How is this accomplished? Verses 8 and 9 tell us.

It says, for by grace you have been saved, through faith. And this, this faith even, is not of yourselves.

It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for or unto good works, which

God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. So this new life that the

Christian, the follower of Christ, experiences, having been dead in trespasses and sins, but now made alive, this is accomplished by the grace of divine power working in the life of a spiritually dead individual.

Oh, I trust that this prophecy of divine power has been realized in your life, that by God's grace you have come to faith in Christ.

You've put your trust in him. This one born of a virgin, conceived by divine power, brought into this world as a fulfillment of a prophecy of divine power.

A power that is at work even in those who trust him. So our

Father and our God, thank you for this gracious gift of eternal life in Christ that is the culmination of the divine power that you accomplish, express in the life of spiritually dead people.

Oh, Lord, thank you for making us alive, those who have put their trust in Christ.

This makes Christmas all the more real and all the more special to us. We thank you and praise you for it in Jesus' name.

Amen. All right, well, have a good rest of your Thursday, and I hope that all goes well with you today, and the