Jesus Is Coming!

 

Matthew 2:1-2  ¹Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, ²Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.

Matthew 12:38-42  ³⁸Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. ³⁹But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: ⁴⁰For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. ⁴¹The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here. ⁴²The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.

The Bible is different from the many other religious books in the world in the fact that it contains over 2000 fulfilled prophecies without error – history written in advance!

 

There are still a few people today who make the claim that Jesus never existed, that He was only a mythical character. However, those that claim this are not historians, but are ignorant of the facts. Besides the New Testament, which is the best-documented book of antiquity, other sources also mention Jesus: the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, the Roman historians Cornelius Tacitus, Seutonius, and Pliny the Younger. In fact, we know more about the Life of Jesus than just about any other figure in the ancient world. His birth, life and death are revealed in much more detail than most ancient figures whose existence is taken for granted by historians.

The vast majority of people, while intelligent enough to know that Jesus actually existed, are still in the dark as to who He really was. The titles Messiah, Teacher, Prophet, Miracle Worker, Son of Man, even Son of God do not FULLY describe who He was … for Jesus was Jehovah God of the Ages, robed in a body of flesh!

The apostles in their preaching cited two areas to prove that Jesus of Nazareth was God, come in the flesh. The first was His resurrection from the dead. The second was the messianic prophecies of the Old Testament that Jesus fulfilled. (Acts 3:18; 10:43; 13:29; 17:2-3; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4; Romans 1:2)

Jesus Himself often stressed that the events taking place in His life were the fulfillment of what the Prophets had written in the Old Testament. (John 5:39-47; Matthew 13:14; 11:10; 21:42; 26:56; Luke 4:20-21; 22:37; John 15:25)

There were 332 Old Testament prophecies about Messiah that were fulfilled by the life of Jesus Christ. Mathematician Peter Stoner said that if you took just 8 of these prophecies, the odds of a person coincidentally fulfilling all eight would be one in 10 to the 17^th power. Since we can’t easily picture what that means, he gave this illustration: Suppose you took the state of Texas and spread silver dollars two feet deep across the whole state, then marked just one of them and buried it somewhere in the state. Then, if you chose one person, blindfolded him, and told him to pick just one silver dollar, his chances of getting the marked one on his first try would be one in 10 to the 17^th power! Stoner’s students at Westmount College made the same calculation with 48 prophecies and came to “the extremely conservative estimate” of 10 to the 157th power. But Jesus didn’t just fulfill 8 of the prophecies or 48 of the prophecies – He fulfilled all 332!

The fact that Jesus fulfilled so many prophecies with 100% accuracy proves two things:  First, there is a Divine Author behind the Bible.  Second, Jesus Christ is who He said He was – Almighty God! Here are some of the prophecies fulfilled by Jesus at His birth:

1.     HE WOULD BE BORN IN BETHLEHEM

Micah 5:2  But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

Fulfilled in Matthew 2:1-6

The prophet Micah recorded the exact birthplace of Jesus at least 500 years before He was born! How would an impostor have controlled these minute details concerning the place of his birth? Two Bethlehems existed at this time, one in the territory of Zebulun (Joshua 19:15) and the other in Judea, Bethlehem Ephratah. This town was so small and insignificant that it is twice omitted from a catalog of towns in Judah (Joshua 15; Nehemiah 11:25). It is just a tiny village! (John 7:42) Of all the locations in the entire world, the true Messiah could be born in only one! Notice also that the Messiah was to come from “of old, from everlasting.” He would have the same attributes as God Himself – impossible unless it was Almighty God in that manger in Bethlehem!

2.     HE WOULD BE A DESCENDANT OF KING DAVID

Isaiah 11:1  And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:

Fulfilled in Luke 1:32

What are the chances of an imposter being born in the right village, in the right tribe (Judah), and of the right ancestral family (David)?

3.     ISRAEL WOULD BE OCCUPIED BY A FOREIGN POWER

Genesis 49:10  The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.

Fulfilled in John 18:31

Under Roman dominion, the Jews no longer had any authority to administer capital punishment – that’s why they had to bring Jesus to Pilate for judgment.

4.     HE WOULD HAVE TO ANSWER THE “RIDDLE OF THE RABBIS”

Jeremiah 22:28-30  ²⁸Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure? wherefore are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not? ²⁹O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD. ³⁰Thus saith the LORD, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.

Fulfilled in Matthew 1:11

Because of King Jeconiah’s wickedness, God had actually cursed him and his descendants – the ancestral line through which the Messiah was to come! This was a conundrum for the Rabbis who studied the Scriptures – on one hand, the Messiah had to be a descendant of the kingly line of Jeconiah, but on the other hand, Jeconiah’s descendants were cursed by God and would not be recognized by God as legitimate! What a puzzle!

5.     THE ANSWER – HE WOULD BE BORN OF A VIRGIN!

Isaiah 7:14  Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Fulfilled in Matthew 1:21-25

The answer to the riddle of the Rabbis was that Jesus Christ was the LEGAL descendant of Jeconiah, but not the LITERAL descendant according to bloodline – because He was the Son of God! Some have tried to make “virgin” mean “a young woman.” But how could a young woman conceiving and bearing a son be a sign? That happens every day! The sign was an unmistakable supernatural occurrence – God was going to put on a human body that would be a mediator, a sinless man for sinful humanity.

The Rabbis in Jerusalem knew all the Scriptures about the Messiah – they had studied them for hundreds of years! Pagan wisemen came from the far east to worship Jesus at His birth, but the Rabbis didn’t even travel the five miles from Jerusalem to Bethlehem to check out the signs that were being fulfilled!

As Jesus’ ministry grew in popularity, and as He fulfilled more and more Messianic signs, the Rabbis, Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes and Sanhedrin grew more and more calloused to the prophetic fulfillments happening all around them!

There were 25 Old Testament prophecies dealing with the events surrounding the crucifixion of Jesus Christ including His betrayal, trial, death and burial. They were uttered by many different voices and over a period of 500 years, yet they were all fulfilled within twenty-four hours in one person, on the day that Jesus died for the sins of the world. How much control does a person have over the events surrounding their death and even AFTER their death?          And yet they still didn’t believe!

Daniel 9:25 prophesied that the Messiah would be announced to His people 483 years after the decree to rebuild Jerusalem. This was fulfilled – TO THE EXACT DAY – when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey in His triumphal entry recorded in John 12:12-13.          And yet they still didn’t believe!

Even their rejection of Jesus fulfilled prophecy!

Isaiah 53:3-6  ³He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. ⁴Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. ⁵But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.   ⁶All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

What sheer ignorance, that a people expecting their Messiah and studying the prophecies about Him for literally hundreds of years, could actually miss the signs surrounding His coming!

BUT WE ALSO KNOW THE SCRIPTURES PERTAINING TO HIS SECOND COMING! We are literally a “short distance” away from the Messiah’s coming, and yet many are seemingly unaware or unconcerned – just like the Jewish scholars!

Daniel 12:4  But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

o   The daily New York Times now contains more information that the 17th century man or woman would have encountered in a lifetime.

o   About 1,000 books are published internationally every day, and the total of all printed knowledge doubles every five years.

o   As we go from grade school to high school we learn only one billionth of what there is to learn. There is enough scientific information written every day to fill seven complete sets of Encyclopedia Britannica; there is enough scientific information written every year to keep a person busy reading day and night for 460 years!

o   In the last 30 years mankind has produced more information than in the previous 5,000.

2 Timothy 3:1-5  ¹This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. ²For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, ³Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,  ⁴Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; ⁵Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

1 Thessalonians 5:2-4  ²For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. ³For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. ⁴But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.

Matthew 24:4-7  ⁴And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. ⁵For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. ⁶And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. ⁷For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

Matthew 24:12-13  ¹²And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. ¹³But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

Luke 21:28  And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.

The people of Nineveh who repented before God at the preaching of Jonah, the Queen of Sheba who traveled a great distance to hear the wisdom of an earthly king, and the wise men who traveled a great distance to worship the heavenly King, RISE UP AND CONDEMN OUR GENERATION BECAUSE A GREATER ONE THAN ANY OF THEM IS HERE!

JESUS IS COMING … SOON!

2 Corinthians 5:11-a  Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men …