Messianic Prophecies

Emmaus, the Scriptures, and the Messiah

You may have seen the painting, a very famous piece of Christian art, of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, and they're walking and Jesus is with them and he is gesturing. And it's referring to that time period when Jesus joined himself with the disciples as they're walking along and he began to open the scriptures to them and to explain to them that from Moses through all the prophets that they testified concerning him.

And later when they broke bread and their eyes were opened, having been supernaturally kept from recognizing the Lord, when their eyes were opened they made the comment, we're not our hearts burning within us, when he was speaking with us, when he was opening those scriptures.

And then shortly after that when the Lord appears to the disciples, the first thing he does is he opens the scriptures to them. He explains to them that the scriptures have testified concerning him. Now we can get somewhat of an idea as we look at the preaching of the New Testament church and the book of Acts, what some of those texts were, especially as they have to do with the suffering of the Messiah.

But it has come to my attention over the past number of years that there is a series of texts found in the Old Testament that very rarely do you hear expounded in regards to their utilization in the New Testament.

And sort of as a gift to you this morning, I think an understanding of this cluster of texts, recognizing that these texts were written seven centuries before the birth of Christ. Given that they were written in different circumstances, given that they had different purposes when they were first written, and yet all of them come together 700 years later to describe the coming of Emmanuel, God with us, a child that is born to us, a son that is given to us.

I want you to think for a moment, how could anyone, when we think about prophecy, I listened to a debate recently and a man made an argument, he was arguing for continuationism, continuationism versus cessationism.

He was arguing that basically what we would call the apostolic sign gifts continue to operate in the church today. And he mentioned a prophecy that he had given and how it had been fulfilled and he was pushing his opponent to say, well you believe I am a man of God, you believe I am your brother in Christ, are you saying I was lying, and he was pushing these things.

When I thought about the content of this alleged prophecy, that it was very close to the time period, that everything that it said was well within the realms of possibility, I was struck at the huge contrast between that kind of thing or the kind of thing that, thankfully Kelly does most of the grocery shopping, but I have done it in the past, and those prophetic magazines that they have at the checkout counter, I didn't realize that there was so many prophetic magazines, especially this time of year, prophecies for 2017, prophecies like President Trump will be controversial, I might have a gig in this type of a thing there.

This kind of stuff that we see is so qualitatively different than what we have in the Christian scriptures. And sometimes you and I as children of our age, children of the enlightenment, living in a secular age, we have seen all the abuses of the woo-woo's out there that blame the Holy Spirit for all their strange, weird activities and things like that, so we tend to back off a little bit, but the reality is Jesus taught us that there were prophecies about him and that included all of his life, including his birth.

And when you think of how a prophet writing in Israel 700 years prior to his birth, now of course modern liberals try to argue some of this, but what's interesting is what we are going to be looking at is sections from Isaiah 6 and following.

Isaiah 6 and John’s Use of Isaiah’s Temple Vision

And modern liberals like to talk about Isaiah and Deutero-Isaiah, so anything after Isaiah chapter 39 is something that was later on, but that earlier part, well it's all from that earlier part. And we have manuscripts of Isaiah that predate the birth of Christ by at least a century.

There is no reason to question that these things were written long before the birth of Christ. Even if you try to bring it a few centuries closer, it doesn't change anything. The reality is these words were written, and what's fascinating is they were written to address completely different topics.

And yet, and yet, only in the light of the fulfillment that we can see from our perspective are you able to see the intimate relationship that they bear to one another. Now how do you make something like that up?

Fact is, you can't. So what do I refer to? We'll start in Isaiah chapter 6, I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time, we don't have enough time to spend a whole lot of time establishing all the context and things like that.

I'm going to have to be somewhat brief. So write the text down, and maybe as you have time, we certainly have time between 6 .30 and 7 .30 this evening, which you normally don't have. Maybe you could read through these texts and review them for yourself.

But in Isaiah chapter 6, automatically we all should, when we hear Isaiah 6, the first thought in our mind should be Isaiah's temple vision, the commissioning of Isaiah as a prophet. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord lofty and lifted up, and the train of his robe was filling the temple.

As I have mentioned many times before, the Greek translation of this text has a variant and it actually says his glory was filling the temple. Why is this relevant? Well, in John chapter 12, just in passing, in explaining the unbelief of the people, John quotes from later on in John chapter 10, I'm sorry, let's try this again, Isaiah chapter 6 verse 10, render the hearts of this people insensitive, their ears dull and their eyes dim, otherwise they might see with their hearts, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, return and be healed.

And John utilizes this text from Isaiah in John chapter 12 as an explanation of how the Messiah could have come and done these amazing things and yet so many eyes were kept from seeing who he was. So many lived in unbelief.

And then he makes this interesting little statement. In verse 41 of John chapter 12, he says these things Isaiah said because he saw his glory and he spoke about him. Now if you have the NIV, it says these things Isaiah said because, it puts the word Jesus in there, because the NIV translators did not think that their readers would be smart enough to follow the context more than two or three verses.

So, thank you very much, I got one laugh out of that, but everyone else must be using the NIV this morning. Which actually ruins the usefulness of that particular translation for dealing with Jehovah's Witnesses at this text because the word Jesus isn't in there.

But the only person in the context that it could be referring to is Jesus. It's not that it's incorrect, it's just I would prefer that you didn't stick the name Jesus in there when it's not in the original.

What's John's point? These things Isaiah said because he saw his glory and he spoke about him. Well when you recognize that in Isaiah chapter 6, in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, which is the very translation of the Old Testament that who would be reading?

John's audience. John's probably writing in Ephesus later on, he's writing to a Greek audience, he's writing in Greek. What translation of the Old Testament are they reading? The Greek Septuagint. What does it say in Isaiah 6 .1?

They saw his glory. So it's plain exactly what's being referred to. Isaiah's temple vision, Isaiah 6. And yet if you ask Isaiah, Isaiah whose glory did you see? I saw Yahweh. If you ask John, whose glory did you see?

Saw Jesus. Saw Jesus. John, where did you get this idea? John, are you really being faithful to the text to connect things together like this and quote that and bring that together? John, where did you get this?

Well, there is that time period. Those days after the resurrection, Jesus ministering to his apostles. And what is he doing to them? He is teaching them. He is teaching them. Now, you might say, okay, that's one, that's interesting.

It's relevant when talking to Jehovah's Witnesses, identify as Jesus, as Yahweh, but it's just one. It's just one. But think with me for a moment. That's Isaiah 6. What's the chapter after Isaiah 6? That's not a trick question.

I'm not trying to get you to think that Zacchaeus is Zechariah, okay? I'm not doing that. Isaiah chapter 7, Isaiah chapter 7. What's in Isaiah chapter 7? Oh, yeah, the child Emmanuel, Isaiah 7, 10. Then Yahweh spoke again to Ahaz saying, ask a sign yourself from Yahweh your God, make it as deep as Sheol or high as heaven.

But Ahaz said, I will not ask nor will I test Yahweh. Then he said, listen now, O house of David, is it too slight a thing for you to try the patience of men that you will try the patience of my God as well?

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son and she will call his name Emmanuel. He will eat curds and honey at the time he knows enough to refuse evil and choose good.

For before the boy will know enough to refuse evil and choose good, the land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken. My friends, if you have not read the preceding four or five verses and the following four or five verses, never present that text to somebody because they can trip you up if you are not aware of something that is very important when we look at prophecy.

The first thing to notice here is, notice, is there a different context between chapter 6 and chapter 7? Totally. Chapter 6 is Isaiah's commissioning, we're in a completely different situation here. Isaiah is dealing with Ahaz, there's political issues, there's kings coming against Israel.

So now we have a completely different context. And yet in the middle of it, we have what Christians believe to be a prophecy. And there are two issues, very quickly, to mention about this. One is the term virgin.

The Hebrew term Alma is not the technical term for virgin, Bethula is. But the Greek word that is used in the Greek Septuagint, which is what is quoted by the New Testament writers when they quote this text, is the Greek term Parthenos.

You've heard of the Parthenon in Egypt? The Parthenos, Parthenos specifically is the word for virgin in Greek. And so you'll have people say, well, no, no, that's not it. Originally, this was just about a young maiden who has a child, and when he's old enough to refuse good and choose evil, the land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken.

There was a fulfillment in the days of Isaiah, and they are exactly right. And it's totally irrelevant in the New Testament use of that text. Don't fall into the trap of trying to defend the indefensible.

There was a reason why Isaiah was called the way he was called. There was a fulfillment of the hardening of the people's hearts in Isaiah's day, in Isaiah 6. In Isaiah 7, there is a woman who has a child, and yet by the time he's old enough to choose good and to eschew evil, the kings that they're afraid of, no longer relevant.

There was fulfillment. Does that mean that that's the only fulfillment it can have? Well, you know, if you didn't keep having these prophecies lining up in a row, then maybe you could excuse the one, excuse the other, but you see there is a greater fulfillment to be found in these, especially when you look at the name that is given to him.

Now, again, the naturalist, the secularist, the liberal looks at Immanuel, which El Elohim is the word for God, Immanuel simply means with us, Immanuel, God with us. So really, the name originally was just simply saying, God is with you, he's going to protect you against these kings.

Well, that's all there is to it, right? Well, why do you say that's all there is to it? It had immediate fulfillment, there's no question about that. No reason to argue it. Well, then the New Testament writers are abusing it, are they?

Because you see, if you end up with text after text after text after text, that then finds fulfillment 700 years later under Roman rule in completely different contexts, you might want to go, huh, there might be something more to this than I've looked at.

His name, she will call his name Immanuel, God with us. Now, keep that in mind, because unfortunately, and I'm not really certain why this is, but your translations will often leave you in a little bit of confusion, especially as we look at this section.

Isaiah 8 and the Stone of Stumbling

Go to the next chapter, Isaiah chapter 8. Now we're moving on to another period in Isaiah's ministry, another topic, and we go to Isaiah chapter 8, verse 8. We read the following words, then it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass through, it will reach even to the neck, and the spread of its wings will fill the breadth of your land, and what do you have?

O Immanuel. O Immanuel? Is that referring to the kid that was referred to in the previous one, the little boy that we never hear anything more about? What does it mean, O Immanuel? Well, now it's really the people of God.

God is with these people. But then it goes on. Be broken, O peoples, and be shattered. Give ear, O remote places of the earth. Gird yourselves, yet be shattered. Gird yourselves, yet be shattered. Devise a plan, but it will be thwarted.

State a proposal, but it will not stand, for, and here's where it gets a little weird. For Immanuel. Except most translations say what? God is with us. For God is with us. So you don't necessarily see the repetitive use of the terms because of the way the translation is.

Okay, God is with us. Hmm, we've got this Immanuel thing, it's continuing on in this chapter. Then look at verse 12. You are not to say it is a conspiracy in regard to all this people call a conspiracy.

And you are not to fear what they fear, or to be in dread of it. It is Yahweh of hosts whom you should regard as holy, and he shall be your fear, and he shall be your dread, that he shall become a sanctuary, but to both the houses of Israel a stone to strike, and a rock to stumble over, and a snare and a trap.

For the inhabitants of Jerusalem, many will stumble over them. Then they will fall and be broken, and they will even be snared and caught. Hearing some echoes here, folks? Bunch of those phrases are picked up in the New Testament, aren't they?

Bunch of those in a number of different contexts, and one of them I bet you didn't even think about. Verse 13. It is Yahweh of hosts whom you should regard as holy. Where is that quoted in the New Testament?

Peter. But treat the Messiah as Yahweh, as holy in your hearts, always being ready to give an answer to anyone who asks you to reason with the hope that is within you, yet with gentleness and reverence.

In simply speaking to the regular people of the church, as to how they are to live their normal lives, Peter draws from this text, again identifies Jesus as Yahweh, and applies these words straight out of Isaiah.

And then, of course, when it talks about a stone of stumbling, a rock of offense, yep, there we go with Paul, and a discussion of how Jesus functions in that way, especially as a scandalon, a stumbling block, to the people of Israel.

Three chapters in a row, and the New Testament authors, who learn from Jesus after his resurrection, are drawing from this text of Scripture, and they're making numerous applications, all with specifically Christian fulfillments, in regards to Jesus, his work, his birth, and his people.

Very interesting. But again, that's only three chapters, that's only three chapters, maybe, well, okay, Isaiah 8 .18, Behold, I and the children whom Yahweh has given me are for signs and wonders in Israel from Yahweh of hosts.

And, yeah, that's quoted as well in the New Testament, where? Hebrews chapter 2, Hebrews chapter 2, which, of course, you all knew immediately, because you're all here for the Hebrews series, and you've remembered every single cross-reference I ever gave to you.

I'm going to just simply take that as a given, so I can be very happy today. Actually, I wouldn't remember it myself, even though I preach the sermons. Again, the same section of text, and clearly, the New Testament apostles are saying, here, Isaiah, he's talking about different things.

He is prophesying to Israel about different things. And yet, what holds all these things together? They end up having a cohesive fulfillment 700 years later. Well, it's just 6, 7, and 8, right? Oh, wait a minute, there is that chapter 9 thing, huh?

Isaiah 9 and the Child Called Mighty God

Yeah, we all know this one. Isaiah 9 .6, For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us, and the government will rest on his shoulders, and his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

There will be no end of the increase of his government or of peace on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness. From then on and forevermore, the zeal of Yahweh of hosts will accomplish this.

I remember reading a commentary years ago, a very good commentary, but when it comes to Old Testament commentaries, we sort of gave the Old Testament sphere up to the liberals a long time ago. And if you don't want to just be laughed out of every meeting of Old Testament scholars, you've got to be really careful about what you say.

And so here are these two Old Testament scholars, and they're looking at this text, and they've gone through it. A child will be born to us. A Yeled. That's the normal term for a child in Hebrew, Yeled, to be born.

If you were to describe the birth of any child, this is the terminology that would be used. So this child is really born, he didn't beam into the world, he didn't just pop in. Child is born. But a son is Nathan, given to us, a son.

And the names that are given to him, wonderful counseling, El Gabor, mighty God. In Isaiah 10, El Gabor is going to be used specifically of Yahweh. You can't just go, well, it just means mighty warrior or something.

It's used of Yahweh in the next chapter. Well, eternal father, that causes you a problem. No it doesn't. It's avyad, it means the father of eternity. It's fulfillment in Colossians chapter 1. Jesus Christ, the creator of all things, time itself, prince of peace.

What does his death upon the cross of Calvary accomplish? Final and perfect peace we got. And these scholars, they're looking at this and they walk through it. They're honest enough to deal with it. And then they just sort of have to say, now of course, it's difficult for us to understand what these words could have meant to Isaiah in his day.

And yeah, it is. But they had the honesty and the integrity to say. But we cannot diminish the meaning of the words that are in the text before us. Clearly there is something here that transcends what any ancient prophet of Israel could have understood simply on his own.

And they were exactly right. They were exactly right. What tremendous words. Isaiah chapter 6, John chapter 12, Isaiah chapter 7, Virgin, Emmanuel, Isaiah chapter 8. Half a dozen different verses that are quoted all across the epistles of the New Testament having their fulfillment in the Christian movement and in the followers of Christ.

We get to Isaiah chapter 9 and you have one of the most powerful Christological prophecies in all of Scripture. You think maybe a pattern is developing here? Just possibly? I have to wonder. Was this one of the texts?

Did Jesus start walking through this text with the disciples on the road to Emmaus where their hearts were burning? We're not done. Because you might go, well, that's pretty much all the key text, isn't it?

Well, no, actually. What's interesting, and again, I want to emphasize this. You've heard me say this, but I want to make sure you understand why I'm emphasizing this. Each of these chapters is addressing different aspects of Israel's experience in their day.

They may have been separated from one another by many years. It's not like Isaiah is sitting around going, well, I think I'm going to put together about six or seven chapters of my prophecy today and I'm going to weave something in here, a sort of consistent thing.

No, he's dealing with issues of his day. And yet when we look at them together, we see this progression. We see these texts. And they're coming together. Now, when we think about Isaiah chapter 10, when I think of Isaiah chapter 10, the first thought across my mind is the big word, compatibilism.

Compatibilism. Why? Because Isaiah chapter 10, when I want to prove to somebody that God has a sovereign decree and he uses man's evil and yet he holds man accountable for his evil, what are the three big texts that we weird reformed folks use?

We use Genesis 50. Joseph's brothers. You meant this for evil. God meant it for good. Direct parallel. We go to Isaiah chapter 10. And there God brings the Assyrians against Israel and he punishes them.

The rod in my hand to strike them down in the streets. And then I'm going to punish the king of Assyria. Why? Because of the pride in his heart. So he uses the Assyrian king and yet he judges the Assyrian king based upon what fills his heart.

And we can trust God to do that justly because he's the only one that actually knows what fills our hearts even better than we do. Even better than we do. So that's the first thing that crosses my mind is all the stuff about woe to Assyria.

And I mean it's just great. It's an excellent text on that subject. Guess what comes right after it? Guess what comes right after it? Isaiah chapter 10 verse 20. Now in that day the remnant of Israel and those of the house of Jacob who have escaped will never again rely on the one who struck them but will truly rely on Yahweh the Holy One of Israel.

A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob to the mighty God. To the who? Mighty God. Where did we hear that before? Isaiah 9 verse 6. El Gabor. Mighty God. But here it's specifically identified as Yahweh but the son that's given is identified as El Gabor.

A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob to the mighty God for though your people or Israel may be like the sand of the sea only a remnant within them will return. A destruction is determined overflowing with righteousness.

What's the message that we see in Romans 9, 10, 11? What does Paul specifically state in Romans 11? The remnant. The remnant, that elect seed. That's what we're seeing today. That remnant, here it is, Isaiah chapter 10 with the connection to the mighty God, El Gabor.

Takes us right back to Isaiah chapter 9. Well, is that it? No. Let's throw one more in for the fun of it. Isaiah chapter 11. And again, it's really good if when you read the New Testament that you read it in such a way to hear the echoes.

Of the old. That's why I like translations that really mark out for you with clarity. When the New Testament writer is quoting from an Old Testament passage. So that it forces it into your consciousness.

Here is someone who is quoting from the Old Testament. I might want to look at what that was about. Might want to look at what that was about. Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse. And a branch from his roots will bear fruit.

The spirit of Yahweh will rest on him. The spirit of wisdom and understanding. The spirit of counsel and strength. The spirit of knowledge and the fear of Yahweh. And he will delight in the fear of Yahweh.

He will not judge by what his eyes see nor make a decision by what his ears hear. But with righteousness he will judge the poor and decide with fairness for the afflict of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth.

With the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. Also righteousness will be the belt about his loins. And faithfulness the belt about his waist. Once again, words that end up with multiple citations.

Even in the book of Revelation. Wow. Remember when we were in Hebrews. We emphasized why this book had become one of the most ignored books of the New Testament during the history of the church. Why? Because the knowledge of the Old Testament as divine scripture was so damaged by the split between the synagogue and the church.

The loss of the knowledge of the Hebrew language. The loss of knowledge of the Hebrew backgrounds. And so you can't understand the book of Hebrews if you don't understand its Old Testament background.

There is another book rife for misuse as any modern Christian bookstore will demonstrate. The book of Revelation. And once again, if your translation uses block quotes, italics, whatever it is and tells you this is an Old Testament citation, man, there are a lot of them.

Especially in the chapters dealing with the letters to the churches and the descriptions of Jesus. And when you think about descriptions of Jesus and He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth.

Who rules the rod of iron? Who strikes the nations? Again, the book of Revelation is drawing heavily from this imagery fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Fulfilled in Jesus Christ. We could go on, obviously. I mean, we read Isaiah 52, 13 and following.

We read Psalm 22. We could go to Micah 5. But I think this just gives us an idea. As we've just looked at just a few texts. What was going on on the road to Emmaus? What was going on in the upper room?

What was going on along the seashore? When after the eating there was then the period of instruction between the Lord Jesus and His disciples. And why? And I mentioned this. I preached on the Luke 24 passage within the past couple of years, I think.

I mentioned then that it struck me as a little bit strange that when Jesus first spoke to the disciples He seemed, well He did. He didn't just seem to. He rebuked them for their hardness of heart. For they're not having already understood that the Scriptures testified of Him.

And so if He's going to do that there must be more than just a couple of texts. I've also mentioned a number of times that when you think about it the early church, when they went out and did their evangelism they did not have the sole winner's New Testament.

They couldn't turn to a little section in the back where you had your little questions that you lead people through and you get them to, you know, it's sort of like a used car salesman routine and you get them to do their thing, you know.

They didn't have the New Testament at all. They didn't have the Roman's Road. They didn't have the four spiritual laws. What did they have? They had the Tanakh, the Torah, the Nevi 'im, the Ketuvim, the Law, the Prophets and the Writings.

This was the text that they used. When you see them boldly going into the synagogue boldly going into the synagogue and proclaim that Jesus Christ was the Messiah guess what texts they were using? Well, it becomes obvious to us we don't have to have a full transcript of every one of those debates that took place in those synagogues because we have Peter and we have Paul and who are they writing to?

They're writing to the people that were converted by their preaching. And so they don't have to go through in the letters now here's a quotation from Isaiah where Isaiah says this and this is fulfilled in Jesus in this way.

They can simply make reference to them because they've already accepted the truth these things because they're Christians now. And so they can be mentioned in passing. That's why you don't have a whole lot of explanation.

That's why we have to do some digging. Not having that immediate context that they have. But what kind of power did these people have? How confident would almost any of us be? Almost any one of us. To go into a synagogue today, now alright to go into an orthodox synagogue because let's be honest the vast majority, sadly of people who call themselves Jewish today are not even theists.

Or barely so. Sadly. Much of what is called Judaism is so liberal that it might be deistic agnostic. I mentioned that I spent eight miles while climbing Mount Evans in a race back in July witnessing to an atheist Jewish doctor who was riding behind me.

Notice he didn't ride in front of me which would have helped me. But I was riding in front of him. And between gasping for breath I was witnessing to an atheist Jewish doctor. Sad thing to hear. But let's say it's an orthodox congregation where people actually believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

It's a much smaller group. Much smaller group. Just when you talk to someone they say, oh I'm Jewish. Don't automatically assume. You probably know more about the Old Testament than they do. Oh and by the way don't call it the Old Testament with them either.

The Tanakh will work better in that context. But how many of us would feel confident to walk into an orthodox synagogue with nothing but our Old Testament and proclaim the Gospel? The early church did.

Oh well they trusted in the Holy Spirit. Well we've got to do the same thing. But the fact of the matter is they were absolutely convinced of the prophetic testimony of these scriptures and how they had been fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ.

And I just wonder, I just honestly wonder how many of us today really believe that? Oh it's a given. I mean any orthodox Christian is going to say I believe in the fulfillment of the prophetic text but when you think about that what does that mean?

We really have to believe that seven centuries before Christ in multiple different contexts dealing with different kings and different nations in different ways the Spirit of God used these prophets to weave weave together a tapestry of prophecy that could only be understood upon its fulfillment over half a millennium.

Later. Half a millennium.

Because every one of these words had meaning when they were given. Every one of them did. They weren't meaningless when they were given. The people to whom these words were given, they're held accountable to them.

And yet over half a millennium later their greater fulfillment the relationship they bore to one another which no one could have told all of a sudden becomes clear. It all of a sudden becomes understood.

And there is a tendency on our part to shrink back because that's supernatural my friend. This doesn't fly in academia today. In academia you'd be laughed out of the room if you say there is a supernatural consistency of these ancient words that found their fulfillment 700 years later.

You're not allowed to believe that and have a place at the table. I don't want to be at that table if it requires me to question what God has done. The world today, how many people in our own valley this day are really considering the amazing statement of what Emmanuel means before you say, well, not too many.

Be thankful for the many that are. Be thankful for the many that are. It's a good thing. But the vast majority are not. The vast majority are not. I got up this morning and I happened to see an article huge church, a little bit bigger than ours.

40 ,000 people. I don't call that a church. That's a genetic mistake. This is one of those multi-campus everybody watches a huge video screen places. Yep, you're thinking the same one I'm thinking of.

Georgia. And someone somehow had grabbed the Christmas Eve service. I guess it had been live streamed or something. And they put the beginning of it up. And as I sat there watching it, as much as I try to withhold judgment if I don't know all the people involved and things unfortunately I know enough about what's going on here that I as I watched this I don't even know how to describe it.

When you've got people in shadow, so you've got light behind them so they're dark basically doing go-go dancing in four different windows with one guy in the center doing the singing about Santa and stuff like that at the beginning of the Christmas Eve service.

Hard to rescue that one. Hard to rescue that one. I'm watching this and I'm just so sad because God has his people in a lot of places and I just wonder how many true sheep there are starving in a place like that that would be so blessed to be reminded of the faithfulness of God seen in the fulfilled prophecies about the birth of Jesus Christ.

You want to have a solid ground for believing that God's going to keep his promises to you? He put these prophecies in ink 700 years before he intended to fulfill them. You've got to be a sovereign God to do that.

That's why the open theists can't handle this stuff. They can't have fulfilled prophecy. An open theist is a person who believes God knows what he's going to do in the future but not what free agents are going to do in the future so he doesn't know what's going to happen in the future.

When God created you, I had no idea you would exist because you are the result of tens of thousands of free will choices that would be completely unknown to him. So there are people like that? Yeah. Open theists can't handle this.

They've got to argue against any type of specific Old Testament prophecy despite what the New Testament does with these texts. But can you imagine how a God could put these words down and then go, oh man, I hope I can make this work.

This is going to be tough because if he does this and if that guy does that, was he for 700 years going, oh man, he messed that up. So if I do this over here and then if I try to... Is that what God was doing all that time?

Just run about trying to rescue what he prophetically said he was going to do? That's not the God of the Scriptures. That's not the God of Isaiah 40 -48. That's not the God of the psalmist who does whatever he pleases in the heavens and upon the earth, the seas and all their deep places.

And so what's interesting is today actually gives us an opportunity to speak of God's faithfulness to his own prophetic word. And if he was faithful for 700 years back then, we have no reason to question the continued faithfulness to his promises today.

And yet there are many today. Does not Peter tell us? Where is this coming? He's not coming. He's not coming. It's been a long time. It had been a long time between Isaiah and Jesus too. It was even longer between Moses and Jesus, but you have that protevangelium text in Genesis 3.

Prophecies have been even earlier than that. God's been faithful all along. And when you think we've got a basis for saying, maybe he's lost control. I hope you'll think back to these texts. Think about all the different contexts they were written in.

And then the fact that together they find fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ. What a tremendous gift has been given to us. Let us truly be thankful for it this day. Let's pray together. Our great heavenly father, indeed as we have taken time this morning to consider your word, may we as the disciples on the road to Emmaus, may our hearts burn within us.