Luke chapter 2 verse 6 says, And so
it was that while they were there, the
days were completed for her to be delivered.
And so she brought forth her firstborn son,
and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid
him in a manger, because there was no
room for them in the inn.
Now there were in the same country shepherds
living out in the fields, keeping watch over
their flock by night.
And behold, an angel of the Lord stood
before them, and the glory of the Lord
shone round about them, and they were greatly
afraid.
Then the angel said to them, Do not
be afraid, for behold, I bring you good
tidings of great joy, which will be to
all people.
For there is born to you this day
in the city of David a Savior, who
is Christ the Lord, and this will be
a sign to you.
You will find the babe wrapped in swaddling
clothes, lying in a manger.
And suddenly there was the angelic multitude of
the heavenly host praising God and saying, Glory
to God in the highest, and on earth
peace, goodwill toward men.
And so it was when the angels had
gone away from them into heaven, that the
shepherds said to one another, Let us now
go to Bethlehem, and see this thing that
has come to pass, which the Lord has
made known to us.
And they came with haste, and found Mary
and Joseph and the babe lying in a
manger.
And when they had seen him, they made
widely known the saying which was told them
concerning this child.
And all those who heard it marveled at
those things which were told them by the
shepherds.
But Mary kept all these things and pondered
them in her heart.
Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God
for all the things that they had heard
and seen as it was told to them.
This morning we are in part two of
the series The Life and Times of Jesus
Christ.
And the title this morning is Christ and
His First Coming.
If you're note-taking this morning, you ought
to jot that down.
Christ and His First Coming.
We are so often occupied, and we should
be, regarding the events of Christ's rapture and
Christ's second coming.
But as we go through this series, as
we go through a chronological unfolding of the
events of Jesus Christ and His life on
this earth, we look now to this title
Christ and His First Coming.
Specifically we mean, and this is obvious, Christ
coming into the world.
Yes, that is true, and we're going to
look at that.
But truly, specifically, and catch note of this,
in fact, if you get this, you'll be
really smart prophetically.
The official first coming of Jesus Christ literally
took place near the end of His life.
It took place, in fact, during the last
week of His life.
The actual documented first coming of Christ is
not the baby being born in Bethlehem, though
we'll look at that this morning, and though
that's important.
The technical first coming of Christ, if anybody
should ask you on the street, the answer
is, when Christ came to the temple and
examined the temple during His passion week, that
is His last week of life on earth.
When Jesus came to the temple, you remember
He turned over the money changers and drove
out those that made a merchandise out of
God?
That was officially to the nation His first
coming.
And of course He didn't, or He wasn't
recognized by the nation at His first coming.
But He will be recognized by the nation
at His second coming.
That is His physical bodily return to earth.
The first coming was His arrival to earth,
yes, specifically to the nation Israel, specifically to
the temple mount.
Listen everyone, His second coming will be a
physical bodily return to the temple, to Israel,
to the temple mount, in physical form.
He will bodily come to that area again.
That's not the rapture, that's something very different
and the second coming.
But this morning we're focusing on Christ and
His first coming.
And of course, we are using as a,
really, a theme for this entire series.
And that is found there in Colossians chapter
2.
You're going to know this verse, you know
what?
You're going to know this verse so well.
In 16 weeks of these studies you're going
to have this memorized.
Colossians 2, 9, where it says, Therefore in
Christ all the fullness of the Godhead dwells
in bodily form.
And that's very, very fantastic.
As we go by introduction, you might want
to jot something down.
The first coming of Christ is in connection
with this very important fact called the Incarnation.
Can you write that down?
The Incarnation.
This is Christ or God being revealed in
human flesh.
The Incarnation.
The literally of taking upon or the adopting
of the physical human frame of mankind.
This is God's work.
That God deems that He will come to
earth and clothe Himself with human flesh.
Definition?
The Incarnation.
It's important that we understand that.
It's important that we understand that Jesus has
in fact come in human flesh.
By the way, that is paramount to Christianity.
If you're a Christian this morning, you must
hold to the truth that not only as
we saw last week that Christ dwelt in
eternity, that He's preexistent, but also that He
is Christ who has come in the flesh
and that He is incarnate.
That God came in human form.
We'll see the reasons why not only this
week but in the weeks to follow.
1 John 4, verse 1.
It says, Beloved, do not believe every spirit,
but test the spirits whether they are of
God.
That is, people in this world, if they
proclaim they know Jesus, the Bible says test
them.
Now did you hear what I just said?
Test them.
Man, I tell you, and I pray it's
not this church.
I pray it's not you.
But you and I need to be walking
more and more with a godly, listen, I
want to say this in the right light,
with a godly critical spirit.
I don't mean a bitter critical spirit.
I mean a godly critical spirit.
I don't mean judging one another.
I mean, as the Scripture says, testing the
spirits.
Yesterday at the National Surfing Championships down in
Huntington Beach, we went down there to watch.
And my daughter, Rebecca, she was missing.
She's gone somewhere.
Where is she?
Well, we caught up with her.
And I said, where were you?
And she says, I was just sharing the
Lord with this guy over here.
I was minding my own business and he
came up and approached her.
And she began to share the Lord with
him.
He's from Turkey.
And he told her, I believe in God.
And so they got into a dialogue about
God.
And it was beautiful, because she said, well,
did you know that God died for your
sins?
He didn't know that.
So when somebody says, I believe in God,
you need to, what?
Test the spirit and see what do they
mean.
God who?
As Christians, we are so ignorantly passive when
it comes to this.
When somebody says, I believe in God, we
get all excited and say, oh, they believe
in God.
You know, when somebody says they believe in
God, you should go, hmm, really?
You believe in the eternal creator of the
universe?
Yep.
You believe in the one who showed himself
to mankind?
Yep.
You believe that he came and died on
a cross and rose again from the dead
for our justification, for our salvation?
Nope.
Oh, test the spirits.
That's where you put a big period right
there and stop.
Because now this person needs to meet the
God who died for them.
Amen?
Test the spirits.
He says, test the spirits, whether they are
of God.
Because many false prophets have gone out into
the world and by this we know the
spirit of God.
Every spirit that confess that Jesus Christ, that
is Jesus Messiah.
Listen, Christ is not Jesus' last name.
His name isn't Jesus Christ.
What's your last name?
Christ.
No, his name is Jesus, his mission is
Messiah, Christ.
Christ is simply Greek for the Hebrew, Mashiach,
Messiah, Savior of the world.
Jesus, when you say Christ, you are saying
Jesus, Savior of the world.
That's what Christ means.
So every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ
has come in the flesh is of God.
And every spirit that does not confess that
Jesus came in the flesh is not of
God.
And this is the spirit of the Antichrist
which you have heard is coming and already
is now in the world.
We are studying that in depth on Wednesday
nights.
2 John 1.7 2 John 1.7
John warns us and he says, Many deceivers
have gone out into the world who do
not confess that Jesus has come in human
flesh.
This is a deceiver and an Antichrist.
Boy, that's powerful, isn't it?
The incarnation of Christ is the divine act
of God whereby he willingly took upon himself
the form of a human being.
God becoming a human.
Galatians 4, verses 4 and 5 says, Am
I going too fast?
I got to warn you, studying for this
series, we are only in the second series
and I get so excited.
In preparation for this, I am so excited
in putting this message together that I get
a little out of hand giving it.
I think last week by the third service,
I was yelling and had to ask for
their forgiveness.
I was so pumped up about it.
You know, by the third service, I've had
three, well, by that time it's about five
or six times I've heard the message personally.
And it's like, let's go with this, you
know?
Let's go with it.
We'll go with what?
Go with information like this, Galatians 4, verse
4.
But when the fullness of time had come,
that means the right time had arrived, God
sent forth his Son, born of a woman,
born under the law, that is Jesus had
to fulfill the law to redeem those who
were under the law that we might receive
the adoption as sons.
The awesome thing about your Christianity, friend, is
that it is the descending of God from
heaven to man.
Religion is not Christianity.
Religion is man and man-made effort reaching
and groping and looking for God.
That is called religion.
That is the definition of religion.
God groping and reaching and looking for God.
But Christianity is God having sought out man.
Did you know that?
Christianity is saying that God came down out
of heaven to save mankind.
Religion says man can be good enough and
work hard enough that somehow he'll earn God's
presence or he'll become a God himself.
That is religion and its abomination to God.
Christianity is not religion.
Christianity says God came and visited us.
God came out of heaven and sought us
out.
Isn't that great?
Isn't that wonderful?
It's good news.
In Ezekiel 36, verse 27, this is God
reaching out to us.
He says, I will put My Spirit in
you and cause you to walk in My
statutes and you will keep My judgments and
you will do them.
Why and how?
Because He will put His Spirit in us.
That's God coming down among men.
It's very exciting.
By the way, that's a call to fellowship.
It's a call to friendship by God Himself
in our everyday lives.
But to accomplish this spirit indwelling, to accomplish
this life of being with God, Christ had
to come to earth.
He had to come in His first coming.
Christ had to be born among us and
to experience this life.
Look with me at our first point this
morning.
And that is His coming was prophesied in
advance.
Concerning His coming to earth, His coming was
prophesied to us in advance.
Jesus Christ was and is the only personality
of all human history.
Oh, and I hope there's a non-believer
in here right now.
Oh man, I hope you're a skeptic this
morning.
Listen to this.
This ought to just jar your head.
Jesus is the only one in all of
human history that has a book written about
Him that not only tells you He would
come to earth, but talks about His preexistence,
talks about every moment of His life, His
purpose for coming, and the fact that the
prophetic word of God told us this in
advance.
No one has prophecy written for them in
advance.
My friend, you ought to just take that
to the bank.
Or if you're not sure, you ought to
take it to the laboratory and see if
it's true.
Look at this point.
Point number one.
That He is the only one that has
had prophecy given regarding Him in advance.
Very, very important.
Consider this also.
Predicted by God Himself.
That's right.
God Himself predicted that Christ would come.
In Genesis chapter 3 verses 14 and 15.
So the Lord God said to the serpent,
because you have done this thing, you are
cursed among all the cattle and more than
any beast of the field.
So on your belly you shall go and
you shall eat dust.
I love to say that.
Satan, you shall eat dust all the days
of your life.
And I will put enmity, warfare.
I will put warfare between you and the
woman.
Interesting.
What's that all about?
And between your seed, literally in the Hebrew,
between your sperm, your offspring, and her sperm
or offspring.
We'll come back to that in a second.
He shall bruise your head or crush, actually,
your head.
God is speaking to the serpent which Satan
had embodied.
God says, He, that is the seed of
the woman, will crush your head but you
shall bruise his heel.
You're gonna afflict him in the physical life.
Satan will have an opportunity to afflict Christ
in this physical life.
But Christ will crush Satan's head.
And how is that to be?
This is God's prophetic utterance regarding the incarnation
of Christ.
Way back in Genesis, God told the serpent,
God told Satan, that from the offspring of
the woman, this is very interesting language because
it is impossible.
The language that God gives here, it's impossible.
A woman has an egg.
She doesn't have the sperm.
God is saying, and right here in Genesis
chapter 3 is a radical theological truth, that
God was going to work through the woman
excluding a man, a human being.
Man.
A male man.
Not a postman, but a male man.
God was gonna work in the life of
mankind via a woman without a man.
And the woman would become pregnant and bear
forth a son who is the Son of
God that has the physical body of us,
mankind, but whose father has been engineered by
the Holy Spirit.
My friend, that is the greatest miracle of
all.
It's incredible.
And here, way back in Genesis, thousands of
years ago, God said, I'm gonna do this
thing.
I am going to have a woman bear
forth a child and He is gonna crush
your head.
And I wonder if Satan was confused and
in awe about what he must have meant
by that.
God was gonna do this very thing.
In Genesis 22, verse 2, on to verse
8, it says, And God said, Take now
your son, He said this to Abraham, Take
now your son, Abraham, your only son Isaac,
whom you love, and go to a mountain
or to a land of Moriah and offer
him there as a burnt offering on one
of the mountains which I will show you.
Genesis 22, verse 6.
It says, So Abraham took the wood, listen,
the wood, of the burnt offering and laid
it on Isaac's back.
Do you know any other son that had
wood laid on his back?
And he took the fire in his hand,
which fire speaks of judgment, and the knife.
And the two of them went together in
agreement.
But Isaac spoke to Abraham, his father, and
said, My father.
And he said, Here I am, son.
And then he said, Look, here's the fire
and here's the wood, but where is the
lamb for the burnt offering?
And Abraham said, My son, God will provide
for himself the lamb.
Isn't that wonderful?
The incarnate Christ is as what John the
Baptist said in John 1, 29.
Behold the Lamb of God that takes away
the sins of the world.
When Abraham went to Mount Moriah, Mount Moriah
today is called Golgotha.
We call it Mount Calvary.
It's where the face of the skull is
there just on the north side of that
Arab bus station, just outside the garden of
the tomb is this hilltop where Abraham was
to offer up Isaac who carried wood on
his back to be laid upon that altar.
And, of course, God stopped Abraham from sacrificing
his son.
But thousands of years later, a father led
his son to a hilltop.
And on top of that hill, the Lamb
of God was sacrificed for the sins of
the world.
My son, God will provide for himself the
lamb.
And he did, didn't he?
In the person of Jesus Christ.
God had prophesied in advance to Abraham in
Genesis 22.
Very, very exciting.
Very powerful.
Revelation 5, verse 12.
Are you writing these down?
Oh, I hope you're writing these down.
Revelation 5, 12.
The Bible says there, Worthy is the Lamb
who was slain to receive power and riches.
The Lamb of God.
In Luke 1, verse 26, the Bible says
now, concerning this Lamb, On the sixth month,
the angel Gabriel was sent by God to
a city of Galilee named Nazareth.
To a virgin betrothed or engaged to a
man whose name was Joseph.
Of the house of David, the virgin's name
was Mary.
And having come in, the angel said, Rejoice,
highly favored one.
The Lord is with you.
Blessed are you among women.
But when she saw him, she was troubled
at his saying, and considered what manner of
greeting this was.
I love the way that King James puts
that.
I'm considering what manner of greeting this is.
Can you imagine if an angel showed up?
I think, I guess, we would do the
same thing.
What is this all about?
Then the angel said to her, Do not
be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor
in the sight of God.
And behold, you will conceive in your womb,
and bring forth a son, and shall call
his name Jesus.
He will be great, and the throne, he
will be great, and be called the son
of the highest, and the Lord God will
give him the throne of his father David,
according to the flesh.
Mary was a descendant of David.
And he will reign over the house of
Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will
be no end.
Then Mary said to the angel, How can
this be, since I have never known a
man?
That's physically.
I've never had intercourse.
How can this be?
And the angel said to her, The Holy
Spirit will come upon you, and the power
of the highest will overshadow you.
Therefore, also, that Holy One who is to
be born will be called the Son of
God.
The Holy Spirit was to, by divine act,
fertilize Mary's egg.
We don't know how this happened.
It just happened.
Miraculously.
And the Hebrew construction is extremely powerful, or
the Greek.
And that is, Mary was not pregnant one
moment, and in the moment pregnant.
But not of mankind.
And not by human means.
It's as though God snapped His finger.
And there, conception took place within Mary's womb.
Why?
Because God was going to reveal Himself to
mankind as an angel?
No.
As a deified one?
No.
God was going to reveal Himself as a
human.
And He would live the life of a
human.
And He would suffer also the weaknesses of
a human as well.
Christ incarnate.
Very powerful.
Very exciting.
Very life changing.
Look at our second point that we want
to make right here.
His coming was prophesied of in advance, predicted
by God Himself.
We just saw that.
But also, predicted by God's prophets.
Predicted by God's prophets.
Who is Jesus Christ?
Is He significant?
Should He be important in your life?
Well, listen.
God predicted that He would come.
Told us how to find Him.
How to watch for Him.
How to identify Him.
But also, God said through His prophets that
He could be recognized.
Isaiah chapter 7, verse 14.
And granted, I am touching on a few
verses out of hundreds, over 300 that we
could look at.
We'll touch on a few this morning.
God, through His prophets, predicted as well.
Isaiah 7, verse 14.
Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a
sign.
Everybody says, well, I want to see a
sign.
Well, God says, here comes a sign for
you.
Behold, the Virgin shall conceive and bear a
son and He shall be called Emmanuel.
Emmanuel translated as God is among us.
Well, His name Jesus in Greek is God
has saved us.
God our Savior.
You put that Old Testament declaration of Isaiah
7, verse 14 together with the New Testament
revelation of His name in Greek, which is
Jesus.
Hebrew, His name is Joshua.
Joshua.
It means that God is among us and
God is going to save us.
How?
Through the incarnation of Jesus Christ.
Regarding this, Malachi chapter 3, verse 1 tells
us, Behold, I will send My messenger who
will prepare the way before Me.
And then suddenly the Lord whom you are
seeking will come to His temple.
That's His first coming, people.
That happened during His Passion Week.
The messenger of the covenant whom you desire
will come, says the Lord Almighty.
He spoke that through His prophet Malachi.
It was prophesied in advance.
Consider the third look at this prediction.
Predicted by God's Word, the Bible.
I love this.
Note it.
Psalm 40, verse 7 says, Behold, I come,
and in the volume of the book it
is written of Me.
Look at this here in my hand.
Look at this book.
See, the point I'm trying to stress this
morning is that God prophetically has revealed Himself
through His Son in this book.
From cover to cover, spanning thousands of years,
written by some 40 authors.
There are 66 books that is scientifically accurate,
that is linguistically accurate, that is archaeologically accurate,
historically, prophetically accurate.
There's no flaw in this book.
And God is saying to every skeptic in
the world, Consider My Son.
He's come to earth.
This book has been laid out before you
that you might know who He is.
Isn't it something?
People are so quick to criticize who Jesus
is, but we ought to come back to
them and say, Have you read His book?
Have you read His book from cover to
cover?
Most people are going to say no.
Then how can you criticize the declaration of
God and the fact that God has said,
I'm going to reach you by My only
begotten Son, if you haven't read His book?
If we haven't studied the book?
You know, when I come up here to
teach, I'm scared to death every time.
Now you may think, I've heard people say,
I don't see how you can think this,
but I've heard people say, Oh, you seem
so comfortable up there.
I'm freaking out before a service.
I'm panicking.
Oh God, you know, please, you know, make
it happen.
And one of the great convictions is God
doesn't want me to come up here unless
what I'm teaching on, I believe with all
my heart, and in fact, I'm willing to
die for it.
And I want to have that intensity always
in my heart.
This is true.
When we lead in worship, we should never
come up here and lead in worship if
we're not first worshipping ourselves.
How can a worship leader lead us in
worship if he's not worshipping God in his
life?
How can a teacher of the Word of
God teach unless it's happening in his life?
And God says, this is what I require.
When somebody criticizes the Bible, when somebody says,
well, you know, you can't believe the Word
of God.
You know what?
Quite frankly, I'll hold up the Bible and
I'll say, show me, my friend, show me
where there's an error.
In fact, let me encourage you because you'll
be the first one to find one and
you'll become a billionaire if you can write
a book on it.
Find it.
You can't find it.
Voltaire couldn't find it.
Bertrand Russell couldn't find it.
Darwin couldn't find it.
Kierkegaard couldn't find it.
Stalin couldn't find an error.
There is no error.
As time goes on, the Bible is proven
more and more every day.
I don't know, last night I was watching
a Nova documentary on Alexandria, Egypt.
Maybe you saw it on the origin of
lighthouses.
And they found, just as the Bible talks
about, these areas in Egypt where they found
these idols and stuff.
Well, that's great.
But they're just finding the past, which is
wonderful.
But it's all biblically recorded with accuracy.
God predicted by His Word, the Bible, that
Jesus would come.
The critic should stand up and take note
of that.
How so, Jack?
Well, how about like this?
Isaiah chapter 61, verses 1 and 2 are
completely or is completely linked to Luke 4
.18. Luke 4.18 says the same of
what was prophesied thousands of years in advance
by Isaiah, 743 years before Luke's time, when
it says in Isaiah 61, And the Spirit
of the Lord God is upon me, because
the Lord has anointed me to preach good
tidings to the poor, and He has sent
me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty
to the captives, and the opening of the
prison to those who are bound, and to
proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.
And at that, Jesus sat down, remember.
Hey, Jesus Christ was quoting out of the
scroll of Isaiah, in Luke chapter 4, Isaiah
chapter 61.
Jesus went to the Bible.
When Jesus read that portion of Scripture, He
sat down, which I think it's a good
idea.
The teachers in those days sat down, and
all the students had to stand up.
How'd you like that?
You guys are spoiled.
You got cushy seats, air conditioning.
Jesus opened the scroll, He read it, and
He sat down, He said, Alright, today this
Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.
And their jaws hit the ground.
Jesus said, I am what this verse speaks
about.
I'm the messenger, I'm the one, I'm He.
Their jaws hit the ground.
The Word of God.
Jesus quoted the Word of God.
You know, Jesus quoted Deuteronomy more than any
other book of the Bible.
Did you know that?
That's His favorite book, it appears.
During His earthly ministry, He quoted Deuteronomy more
than any other book.
Romans chapter 1, verse 1 through 4.
Paul says this.
Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to
be an apostle, separated to the Gospel of
God, which He promised before through the prophets
and the Bible, the Holy Scriptures.
Concerning His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who
was born of the seed of David, that
is, He came through Mary, according to the
flesh, and declared to be the Son of
God with power, according to the Spirit of
holiness, by the resurrection of the dead.
Isn't that great?
2 Timothy 3.16 says, All Scripture, the
Bible, is given by the inspiration of God.
That is, God has possessed man to write
or proclaim the Word.
That's why it's without error.
You think God was going to leave this
book to ourselves?
Are you kidding?
It is profitable, He says, for doctrine, and
on He goes.
And then 2 Peter chapter 1, Peter says,
Know this first, that no revelation of Scripture
is of any private interpretation.
For the revelation of Scripture never came by
the will of man, but holy men of
God, as they were possessed, moved, or inspired
by the Holy Spirit.
That's powerful stuff.
Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would bring
to remembrance whatsoever He taught His disciples.
Why?
The Holy Spirit uses the Word of God,
the Bible.
Let's just continue.
I was going to mention this thing about
confrontational truth.
Maybe I should.
Confrontational truth.
When Christ speaks things like this, He says,
I am the way, the truth, and the
life.
That's Bible.
That's confrontational truth.
It's when we as Christians speak that, that
the Holy Spirit comes upon that passage and
drives it home to somebody's heart.
Why?
Because it's biblical, it's Bible, and the Holy
Spirit uses it.
That's why if you quote, if you're witnessing
to somebody and you quote your grandpa to
them, there's no effect.
Well, my grandpa says, Well, good luck, because
that's all you have.
But when you say, Jesus said, Charles Spurgeon
said, When you preach a message, it had
better have a lot of Bible in it.
He said, Every message should be plump and
pregnant with Bible-ine.
He called it Bible-ine.
Full of Bible.
Very, very important.
Let's consider this.
Our second point this morning is His coming
to earth was experientially confirmed.
The second point, His coming was experientially confirmed.
How's that?
John chapter 1 verse 1 says, In the
beginning was the Word, the Word was with
God, and the Word was God.
But John chapter 1 verse 10 says, He
was in the world, and the world was
made through Him, but the world did not
know Him, or the world has recognized Him.
He came to His own, that's the Jewish
people, and His own did not receive Him.
But as many as received Him, to them
gave He the right to become children of
God, to those who believe in His name,
who were born not of blood, not of
the will of the flesh, not of the
will of man, that is all of our
earthly birth, our first birth, but of God.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among
us, and we beheld His glory, the glory
as of the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth.
Listen, the coming of Jesus Christ to earth
was experientially confirmed.
People saw Him.
People talked to Him.
People heard Him.
They were affected by Him.
In 1 John chapter 1, listen to this,
the same John writes this, That which was
from the beginning, that's 1 John chapter 1
verse 1, which we have heard, John says
we've heard Him.
And you might say, well that's one reporter's
opinion.
Well consider this, he's one reporter writing the
book, yes, but there were hundreds of early
disciples, then thousands, then tens of thousands, then
millions, then possibly billions, who don't give it
a second thought to give their life for
Christ and the truth that He has revealed.
Well that's one reporter's opinion still.
Yes, John says, but we even heard Him.
So much was John convinced of what John
taught that he was willing to suffer death
if necessary.
Peter, crucified, upside down to death, because he
believed what he saw and heard about Christ.
Thomas, killed.
James, beheaded.
Luke, killed.
Paul, beheaded.
What do you have in your life worth
dying for?
If you're a Christian, the first thing that
comes to mind is Jesus Christ.
Right from the get-go.
John says, That which we had from the
beginning, we've heard Him, which we've seen Him
with our own eyes.
We looked upon Him in our own hands.
We have handled Him concerning the word of
life.
The life was manifested and we've seen Him
and we bear witness to You and declare
to You that eternal life which was from
the Father.
He was manifested to us.
That which we have seen, we've heard, and
we declare to You that You also may
have fellowship with us.
And truly, he says, our fellowship is with
the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.
Christ Jesus came to earth and He was
experientially confirmed.
Meaning, if you would have lived 1,999
years ago, you would have seen Him.
You could have followed Him.
You could have listened to Him.
You could have seen His works.
Consider this.
He says that it's confirmed to us by
eyewitness account.
Matthew chapter 21.
The nation saw Him with their eyes.
Matthew 21 verse 1 says, Now when they
drew near to Jerusalem and they came to
Bethpage at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus
sent two of His disciples saying to them,
Go into the village opposite you and immediately
you will find a donkey tied to a
colt there.
Loose them and bring them to Me and
if anyone says to you, you shall say
to them, The Lord has need of them.
And immediately He will send them.
And all this was done that it might
be fulfilled which was spoken of by the
prophet.
That's the Old Testament prophet.
Tell the daughter of Zion, Behold, your king
is coming to you humbly and sitting on
a donkey, on a colt, the foal of
a donkey.
And they brought the colt and the donkey,
their clothes on them and set Jesus on
them and a very great multitude spread their
clothes on the road and others cut down
branches from the trees and spread them on
the road.
Then the multitude who went before and those
who followed cried out saying, Hosanna to the
Son of David.
Blessed is he who comes in the name
of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.
The nation saw that moment.
Jesus, Matthew, both of them quoting Zechariah 9
verse 9 written nearly a thousand years before
Christ came.
And the word, the buzz word or the
code word was this to Jerusalem.
O Jerusalem, rejoice greatly, you daughter of Zion.
Shout, daughter of Jerusalem, for behold, your king
comes to you just having salvation, humbly riding
upon a donkey, upon the colt, the foal
of a donkey.
Isn't that fantastic?
You could have experienced Christ.
You had the book.
Here he comes.
You could have said, Hi, Jesus.
Experientially.
Nothing was done in secret.
We're not following some whimsical creation or fables.
We're following facts.
Did you know that Christianity is that we
have faith founded upon facts.
It's not blind faith.
We have the Bible.
We have science to look at that confirms
God's word.
Also this.
Scripture teaches us that it was confirmed by
what God had said.
Micah chapter 5 verse 2.
Micah 5 2 tells us, But you, O
Bethlehem, listen, though you are little among the
thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall
come forth to me the one to be
ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been
from of old, even everlasting, the hill countries
of Bethlehem, beautiful as you see, hills rolling,
shepherds to this day.
This is a current picture.
It hasn't changed.
And God said through Micah, the Old Testament
prophet, 522 years before Jesus was born.
God spoke through Micah.
And he said, You, Bethlehem, Bethlehem, the Messiah
is going to come out of you.
He's eternal.
Born in a shepherd town.
Low income town.
Still to this day.
We have some images that you can see.
I mean, it's just absolutely as it was
thousands of years ago.
And when the Bible says that he was
born in a manger.
Consider this.
I would have liked to have shown you
this image that I took a photograph of,
but I was unable to find it.
But here's a neat stone representation.
I want you to keep your eye on
this closely.
Do you notice this carving here?
There's donkey.
See the donkey and the animals looking at
him right there.
And there's baby Jesus.
And look, he's lying in this manger.
Doesn't that manger look like it's made out
of brick?
You know what the message they're trying to
convey?
All mangers in Israel to this day.
You mean they still make them?
Yes.
Because a manger is not for babies.
Well, I thought the Christmas story said you
could find the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes.
It's true.
But a manger is a feeding trough for
animals.
It holds water and it holds grain.
It's made out of stone.
And we've seen fantastic out in the middle
of nowhere.
Ask someone who's been with us to Israel.
Out in the middle of nowhere near a
well or someplace, there'll be a manger carved
out of stone.
And you pull up the bucket like we
did.
Out in no man's land, pulled up the
bucket and poured water into the manger.
You put food in the manger.
That's why he's the bread of life.
You put the bread of life in a
manger for food.
By the way, you don't bring a manger
inside of a house.
It's unclean.
It's a filthy thing.
They hadn't aligned it with straw or something
because it had cow boogers and stuff on
it.
I mean, it had donkey sliver on it.
You don't put a brand new baby in
there.
You align it with material.
And by the way, you don't put it
inside your house.
You put it outside your house.
Mangers were outside the house.
Just like you put your dog's bowl outside
the house.
Isn't that funny?
God sent His Son and you could find
Him in a manger.
That's why it says when everybody came to
look at Him, remember they all came to
see Him?
He's in a manger.
He's on public display outside the house.
It's fantastic.
Very exciting.
God's Word, true.
The virgin birth of Jesus Christ.
Jesus had to be born of a virgin.
Very, very important.
Had to be that way.
Let's consider this also.
Third point.
His coming changed the course of human history.
Consider this.
You today will probably buy something or maybe
you look at your watch and it's going
to say August 31st.
I'm sorry, August 1st.
Missed a month.
August 1st, 1999.
Did you know that every time you sign
your check or you do something with the
date, did you know that you are consciously
or not using the fact that Christ came
into the world?
1999.
You know the earth is a lot older
than that.
You know that.
Human existence is a lot older than that.
You know that.
But if you're going to do anything meaningful
and anything actual and factual on this earth,
you've got to do it by a date.
And that date is the date concerning the
coming of the Son of God to earth.
Isn't that cool?
I love that.
Why?
We ought to start asking people on the
streets, why is it 1999?
They'll probably say because it is.
And the answer is Jesus is.
That's the answer.
Listen.
His coming changed the course of human history.
How's that?
By qualifying God's plan for the ages.
Quickly this.
Because Jesus Christ came into the world as
God in human form, His purpose was manifold.
Number one, it was to identify with humanity.
Why?
Because God was going to save mankind.
Check this out.
I hope this doesn't offend you.
I find it highly attractive.
Jesus did not come and die for angels.
Did you know that?
They're not redeemed.
Now you might say, oh, poor angels.
Well, you know, I don't know what angels
know.
It's their tough luck.
I don't know.
Some of them are lost forever.
We know this.
But Jesus didn't die for angels.
He died for us.
He identified with humanity.
Second thing is He came to reveal God
to man.
Hebrews chapter 1 verse 1 tells us that
in His last days He has spoken to
us finally by His Son.
He used to speak to us by prophets.
Now Hebrews chapter 1 says He has spoken
to us by His Son.
Why would you follow somebody else?
Why would you follow some strange teaching by
some nincompoop or some crazy group of people?
Jesus.
What has Jesus said?
What does the Bible say about Him?
He has come to reveal God to us.
He qualified God's plan for us in that
He showed the power of God over evil.
He went around healing people, raising people from
the dead, opening up the eyes of the
blind, cleansing lepers from leprosy.
He came to forgive mankind their sin.
He qualified God's plan in that He came
to die for our sins.
He destroyed the work of Satan.
Jesus did.
Only God can do that.
Man couldn't do that.
We try so hard, don't we, to unravel
Satan's work.
You know, that's why there's hospitals.
Satan loves to afflict.
Satan loves to sicken people and to abuse
people and destroy people.
And we have hospitals and we have various
ways of trying to undo, consciously or unconsciously.
You can go to Cedars-Sinai where they
have a great medical facility there for all
kinds of problems.
What are they trying to do there at
that great hospital?
Undo the work of Satan.
Now if you ask the physician there, What
are you doing here?
He wouldn't say, We're trying to undo the
work of Satan.
But that's exactly what they're doing.
But only Jesus can do it.
Ultimately, the great physician heals completely everything to
destroy the work of Satan.
He qualifies God's plan by representing our concerns
to the Father.
You know, the Bible teaches that Jesus right
now is praying for you and I right
now.
Isn't that something?
Well, what's He praying about?
Something you and I need for sure.
Let's consider this also.
Jesus, He changed the course of human history
also by vindicating God's justice.
Vindicating God's justice.
What could that mean?
God is just and He demands payment for
wrong.
When Jesus Christ came, He vindicated God's justice
in that what God has to have to
abolish sin and its power Jesus Christ did
by going to the cross.
Ezekiel 18 verse 4 Behold, God says, all
souls are mine, the souls of the Father
as well as the souls of the Son
are mine, and the soul that sins, it
shall die.
Romans 6.23 For the wages of sin
is death, but the gift of God is
eternal life through Jesus Christ.
In Isaiah chapter 53, God says that it
pleased Him to lay upon Jesus the sins
of mankind.
Why?
Because He was gonna pay the debt of
man's sins completely.
And then finally this, very important, check this
out, write it down.
By enacting the power of salvation.
He changed the course of human history by
enacting the power of salvation.
And that by the preaching of the gospel,
people can be saved.
By the going forth of this good news.
I know it sounds silly.
Paul the Apostle said by preaching the gospel,
the silliness, the funniness, the weirdness of giving
out the gospel, he said it's a strange
thing.
But people are changed.
People are converted.
How is that?
Because it's a spiritual truth.
It's a power.
By Jesus Christ coming to earth, He died
on the cross, rose again from the dead,
He enacted the power of salvation.
Quickly, Hebrews chapter 9 verse 16 says, For
where there is a testament, that is a
will, there must also be the necessity for
the death of the testator.
For a testament is in force only after
a man dies, since it has no power
at all while the man lives.
That's why you have the New Testament.
The power of Jesus Christ now to save
you.
Why?
Because He died.
He came to die for the sins of
the world.
That's why any other way into heaven is
an abomination to Him.
Hebrews chapter 9 verse 26 says, But now,
once at the end of the ages, He
has appeared to put away sin by the
sacrifice of Himself.
We're almost done.
Romans chapter 5 verse 8 says, But God
demonstrated His love toward us, in that while
we were still sinners, Jesus Christ died for
us.
Romans 1 verse 16 says, I am not
ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The incarnation of Christ, the coming of Jesus.
And I want to give you the last
couple of verses, one that you hear often
here.
In 1 Timothy chapter 3 verse 16, it
says, Without debate, great is the mystery of
godliness.
God was manifested, that is you could touch
Him, feel Him, hear Him, see Him, in
the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by
angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in
the world, and then He was received up
into glory.
Isn't that awesome?
Isn't that exciting?
Very important.
Very life-changing.
Have you considered what Jesus Christ has done?
In Hebrews chapter 2 verse 9 you see,
there it says, It was Jesus who was
made a little lower than the angels for
the suffering of death, crowned with glory and
honor, that He, by the grace of God,
might taste death for every one of us.
Have you experienced Him?
Have you, as we go through this series,
this being the second part of the series,
the second teaching, do you know Jesus as
having been the one come in the flesh?
That He's come to earth.
God manifested in human form.
This is the Jesus we worship.
Let's pray.
Father, we come before You, and Lord, we
ask, that by the power of Your Holy
Spirit, Lord Jesus, You might, this morning, descend
upon us with this truth and with the
weight of it, though, Lord, we'd be so
feeble at delivering such a vast topic in
just a few moments of time, but, Lord,
that You would make it clear to our
hearts, Lord, that this morning we would be
drawn closer to You, Lord, that this morning
we would even be spurred on to know
You more, and, Lord, this morning that perhaps
someone would come to know You for the
first time in their life.
Lord, I ask in Jesus' name that You
would speak to every heart here.
And it's in Your name we pray.
Amen.