A Humble Birth || Born to Save!

Luke 2:6-7

I thought we should do a little exercise. Not physical. (laughs) Probably should do that too, shouldn’t we? No, I’d like to go around and have everybody make accurate predictions about what the world is going to look like in 2724. 700 years from now. How many of you think you could make accurate predictions about what life would be like? Other than big stuff, there’s going to be sin, there’s going to be God’s forgiveness. Other than that, what in the world could we predict 700 years off into the future? Can you imagine people in the 1300s trying to predict things like cell phones? And airplanes? I mean, no way! Isaiah’s ministry lasted from give or take 750 to 700 B.C. In other words, Isaiah was writing at least 700 years before the birth of the Savior. And yet, his practice was not complete. And yet, his prophecies are breathtakingly accurate. He’ll be born of a virgin. He will suffer horribly. He will be buried in a rich person’s grave. And oh, Isaiah’s not alone. Micah, contemporary of Isaiah. He’ll be born in Bethlehem. Zechariah, a couple hundred years after Isaiah, but still 500-ish years before the birth of the Savior, prophesies about him riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. The Psalms prophesy about Jesus’ clothes being gambled for by the soldiers. We get very words he would say on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” We’re first written by David about a thousand years before Jesus was born. How should I not have known Isaiah would be there, his prophecies fulfilled, with pounding heart, I stare. How do you know that you can trust the Bible? How do you know that Jesus really is the one? Those Old Testament prophecies given hundreds and hundreds of years before, and then every single one of them coming true, give you wonderful assurance that this Jesus, he’s really the one. This Jesus, he’s really the Savior. And when your God says something, you can count on it 100%. And so when you hear that he’s the Prince of Peace, you can trust that too. No surprise here. God keeps his word. And because God keeps his word, you can have wonderful confidence. Amen.