Good morning.

on a day.

where much of the world is thoughtful and conscious of Christ.

where many who sadly go through their lives week in and week out with no thought to Christ

focus on Him on days like today.

We often speak concerning Jesus, speak concerning what He did, speak concerning the

salvation that is offered through His death, His burial, His resurrection.

But as I was considering that and considering what to discuss with you this morning,

thought about the fact that, sometimes we make a lot of assumptions about what people

know.

Sometimes we make assumptions when someone’s driving down the road that they have a clue

what any of those signs mean.

Sometimes, like recently, you get into a car and you make an assumption you know where all

the switches and the buttons are.

Come find out it’s not your car and no you don’t.

Right, Shelly?

We make assumptions.

This morning we’re going to dispel what for some may be things they don’t really know

because they’ve never been taught.

and verify and demonstrate from Scripture why Jesus is the true Messiah.

that it is not a belief or an understanding that people have as a hope in the dark.

It’s not a leap of faith.

It is something that God in His infinite knowledge, in His infinite wisdom, played out in

His plan of redemption from the beginning of time until Jesus came, until Jesus went to

that

until Jesus died, was buried, was resurrected, and arose the third day.

That it was intentional, that it was foretold, that it was every bit according to the

plan.

and that it was for you and for me.

Jesus Christ is undeniably the Messiah, and we’re going to show that.

I will say this, we’re not going to show that exhaustively.

We’re going to take a few items in the time that we have and demonstrate it from those,

and there are mountains more evidence beyond what we can discuss.

this morning.

We know that Jesus is the Savior of the world.

That’s what Messiah means, by the way.

That he is the Savior of the world sent from God because he fulfilled all prophecy.

as you go through the Old Testament, which we’re going to do this morning, and you see

what God through His prophets in the Old Testament said concerning the Messiah.

Jesus not only came to this earth and fulfilled some, Jesus fulfilled all of the things

that they said concerning the Messiah.

I don’t know about you, but most days when I get up, someone might ask me, what are you

going to do today?

And I might give them an idea on what I think the day holds, and more often than not, I’m

proven wrong.

There were the things I planned to do that day, and then there were the things that I

actually got accomplished, and then there were the things that I had no idea I was going

to be involved in that day.

And if you and I can’t even wake up in the morning and get the day ahead of us right, how

could we reach out hundreds of years and be specific and be numerous and be detailed about

someone who had not even been born?

and not miss it on a single point.

answer is we couldn’t, but God can.

And it demonstrates that Jesus Christ is exactly who He claimed to be.

Consider as we examine a few of the prophecies and the fulfillment that demonstrate that

Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world sent by God.

We begin with the fact and the nature

of God’s prophecies that were given before Jesus was born and yet they spoke concerning

the place of His birth.

And before we get into the exact prophecies, I want you to look at a passage in 2 Peter

because God does not allow us to have our own assumptions about what prophecy is.

He does not give us permission to just make up our own

concepts and theories concerning his prophetic work.

Rather, God is very specific about what he did in prophecy.

In 2 Peter chapter 1, Peter will write, beginning in verse 16, he writes to these fellow

Christians, he says, we did not follow cunningly devised fables.

When we made known to you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,

but were eyewitnesses of His Majesty.” As Peter writes this second letter to his audience,

he makes it clear to them, I was there.

I didn’t tell you about rumors.

I didn’t tell you myths.

I didn’t tell you folklore.

I didn’t tell you what the latest gossip people said.

I told you what I was eyewitnessing.

while Jesus walked on this planet.

But then he says, for he received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice

came to him from the excellent glory, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.

Two occasions where God spoke from heaven and declared Jesus as his son, declared his

position, his glory and his honor,

One of them was when John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the Jordan River and the other was

when Peter and the two other apostles were on the Mount of Transfiguration with him in

Matthew 17.

Peter says, I saw what he did.

I heard the voice from heaven that declared he was the son of God.

But then he says this.

And we heard this voice, which came from heaven when we were with him on the Holy

Mountain.

And so we have the prophetic word confirmed.

Peter points to those events.

Peter points to his eyewitness testimony and says, I know what I read in the Old Testament

prophets, and it’s been fulfilled.

But notice what he says.

We have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in

a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this

first, that no prophecy of scriptures of any private interpretation.

for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved

by the Holy Spirit.

Peter will nail down the nature of prophecy.

If a person makes a prophecy and they thought it up in their head, Peter says, that’s not

what we’re talking about.

If the prophet even had any part in interpreting it, he says, nope.

not what we’re talking about.

What we’re talking about is that which originated with the Holy Spirit and was interpreted

by the Holy Spirit.

And the only part that mankind played is they spoke it.

That’s what he means when he says it’s of no private interpretation.

It’s quite often when we read that we think, he means that, you know, there’s only one

meaning and we don’t all get to have an opinion on what it means.

That’s not what you’re talking about.

The wrong subject there.

The interpretation in view in this passage is by the prophet himself.

In other words, God gave the prophecy and he didn’t allow the prophet to mess it up.

He didn’t allow the prophet to have his own opinion about it.

God gave it and the prophet spoke it exactly as God gave it.

So since God gave it, God controlled it as it was spoken, God made sure that it was

recorded, and then God fulfilled it, guess what we don’t have in the midst of any of that

chain?

Human error.

So Peter will point out that I was an eyewitness so I can assure you of the things which

Jesus did.

I was present when God spoke to him while I was on the mountain, so I know what God

testified, but even more so, I know what you can do of your own accord.

You can go back and look at all those prophecies that were made and see how Jesus

fulfilled every single one of them.

And you can have the same assurance that I had, even though I was on the Mount of

Transfiguration and you weren’t.

So that’s what we’re going to do this morning.

Before Jesus’ birth, turn to Luke chapter 24.

This event doesn’t occur before his birth, but I want to talk about this before we get

into that.

Luke chapter 24 verse 25.

Jesus will say to two individuals on the road to Emmaus, O foolish ones and slow of heart,

to believe in all that the prophets have spoken, ought not the Christ to have suffered

these things and enter into his glory.

Now, if you come back this afternoon, we’re going to be discussing this passage and the

road to Emmaus and the discussion that occurred there.

But let us begin by pointing out Jesus said to these two disciples after he was

resurrected, why are you so foolish to be so slow to listen to the prophets?

Knowing that what God prophesied before, he is going to fulfill.

Go to verse 44 of the same chapter.

Jesus will say, then he said to them, These are the words which I spoke to you while I was

still with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses

and of the prophets and of the Psalms concerning me.

Jesus made it clear that if he did not fulfill every single one of the things that the Old

Testament prophets had to say about him, if he didn’t fulfill them all, he wasn’t the

Messiah.

but that he would fulfill them all and did in doing what he came to this earth to do.

In Luke chapter four.

Luke chapter four, beginning in verse 16.

Jesus will further point out as He is in Nazareth and as He is in the town of His

upbringing around people who knew His family, they knew His parents, they knew Him as a

child, and they do as individuals who did so, they did not understand who He was.

They did not appreciate what was said concerning Him, but He’s going to draw that to a

point.

We read in verse 16 of chapter 4 of Luke, so He came to Nazareth

where he had been brought up and as his custom was he went into the synagogue on the

Sabbath day and stood up to read.

And he was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah and when he had opened the book he found

the place where it was written.

The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the

poor.

He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and

recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed and to proclaim

the acceptable year of the Lord.

Then he closed the book and gave it back to the attendant and sat down.

And all the and the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on him.

And he began to say to them, Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.

So all bore witness to him and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of his

mouth.

And they said, Is this not Joseph’s son?

And he said to them, You will surely say this proverb to me, Physician, heal yourself.

Whatever you have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in your own country.” Then he

answered and said, “‘Surely I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country.

But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah when the heaven was

shut up three years and six months.

And there was a great famine throughout all the land, but none of them was Elijah sent

except to Zarephath in the region of Sidon to a woman who was a widow.'”

and many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet and none of them was

cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.

So all those in the synagogue when they heard these things were filled with wrath and rose

up and thrust him out of the city and they led him to the brow of the hill where their

city was built that they might throw him down over the cliff then he passed through the

midst of them and he went his way.

Why do we bring up this passage?

Number one.

because Jesus made it clear he was going to fulfill prophecy.

Furthermore, number two, he made it clear that those who knew the prophets and knew what

they said and claimed to be the people of God would reject him even in his own city.

You see, sometimes what we do is we look at the Bible

and we read what it says and we read how it should apply to us and then we look at the

world around us and go, but the world doesn’t believe that, so I better not either because

they must know better something I don’t know.

We just go along with popular opinion on whatever the current decision is.

And as a result of that, we become just as ignorant as they are because we don’t choose to

believe God.

The people of Nazareth who knew Jesus from the time he was a young man all the way up

until this point, who knew his father, knew the carpenter that he was, knew his mother,

knew his brethren, knew his sisters, still tried to kill him.

Why?

Because he told him what the prophets said and told them it had been fulfilled.

We cannot decide on the Word of God whether to believe it or not based upon what the world

around us decides to understand.

We must be accountable to God to open His book, to understand what He said, and believe it

and obey it because He said it.

Now then, consider prophecies concerning the birth of Christ.

Now, there are a lot of things you can control in this life.

Once you are of sound mind and age where you can start determining things, you can decide

where to live, generally speaking.

You can decide what job to have.

You can decide a lot of things, but I guarantee you what none of you had any say in is

where you were born.

There was a preacher who I know and love who got up one time many years ago and said, I

always wanted to be born in Texas, but I felt an obligation to be where my mother was at

the time.

You don’t get a say where you’re born.

And yet God, hundreds of years before Jesus came to this earth, told the Israelites where

the Messiah was going to be born.

Turn to Micah chapter 5.

In Micah chapter 5, God will speak to His people.

And he will write, but you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, 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 going

forth are from of old, from everlasting.

God through His prophet Micah is going to tell Israel the one.

The ruler, the prophesied one, the one who God is going to send who is God because he’s

from old, he’s from everlasting.

He’s going to be born.

I don’t know what’s going on with this thing, but if it continues, we’ll switch to that

one.

God is going to tell hundreds of years before Jesus is born that the Messiah is going to

be born in Bethlehem.

Turn to Luke chapter 2.

In Luke chapter two.

Hey Jacob, bring me a new set of batteries.

Sometimes the batteries don’t charge right and that may be the problem.

In Luke chapter two and beginning in verse one, it came to pass in those days that a

decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.

This census first took place while Quinterus was governing Syria.

So all went to be registered, every one to his own city.

Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea to the city of

David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and a lineage of David, to

be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child.

So it was that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered.

And she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in the swaddling clothes and laid

him in a manger.

because there was no room for them in the inn.

hundreds of years before the Messiah was born, God said the one who is going to rule, who

is God in the flesh is going to come forth in Bethlehem.

And as he says that, so it is fulfilled.

Give me just a moment.

All right, we’ll try that.

It’s fulfilled.

But did you notice it’s not going to be fulfilled because the family to whom he was born

were native to being from Bethlehem?

that the family from which he is going to be born weren’t living in Bethlehem at the time?

That the family from which he was going to be born were not going to be long-term

residents in the city of Bethlehem?

God is going to see that the fulfillment of this occurs through a decree of Caesar

Augustus, a Roman emperor who decides to make the entire nation go participate in a census

and in order to be registered, they had to go back to where their family was from.

So Joseph, who had lived in Nazareth, took the woman who he was betrothed to, who was with

child, and brought her back to Bethlehem, where he was from, to be registered.

And while they were there, the Messiah was born.

and God fulfilled exactly what He said He would do.

Turn to Luke chapter 9.

In Luke chapter 9, beginning in verse 21, we read this.

And He, Christ, strictly warned and commanded them to tell this to no one, saying, The Son

of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the

scribes, and be killed and be raised the third day.

Then He said to them, If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up

his cross daily and follow Me.

For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake

will save it.

For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and himself

is destroyed or lost.

For whoever is ashamed of me in my words of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when he

comes in his own glory in his fathers and in his fathers and with of the holy angels.

But I tell you truly that there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they

see the kingdom of God.

As Micah prophesies concerning this one who’s to come, as he prophesies concerning the

location where he’s going to be born, he prophesies that he is going to rule.

And Jesus will make it clear to His apostles that they will not see death before they see

His rule enacted.

See, it’s not just about the place of His birth.

If He was born there and never ruled, prophecy not fulfilled.

If He ruled, but He was born somewhere else, prophecy not fulfilled.

But God, when He spoke concerning the birth of Jesus, spoke specifically.

He spoke in detail and it was fulfilled in detail.

Turn to Daniel chapter two.

In Daniel chapter two, you will find as Nebuchadnezzar has had a vision and he has had a

dream and he has seen this vision of this image that has a head of gold and belly, or

sorry, shoulders and arms of silver and belly and thighs of brass and…

legs of iron and feet of iron mixed with clay that he sees this vision and he doesn’t know

what it means and he needs it interpreted and guess what Daniel will tell him.

Daniel will tell him I don’t interpret dreams.

God does.

And I’ll tell you what the interpretation means but it’s not me who interprets dreams.

God does.

So Daniel will make the same point that Peter made.

Vision wasn’t given by man and vision wasn’t interpreted by man.

It was interpreted by God.

Therefore it was right.

In Daniel chapter 2 and in verse 40 we read this, Daniel will say to Nebuchadnezzar as he

interprets the dream, and the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, and as much as

iron breaks in pieces and scatters everything, and like iron that crushes that kingdom

will break in pieces and crush all the others.

Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, the kingdom

shall be divided, yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron

mixed with ceramic clay.

And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall

be partly strong and partly fragile.

As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men, but they

will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay.

And in the days of these kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never

be destroyed.

And the kingdom shall not be left to other people.

It shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.

Inasmuch as you saw, the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it

broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold.

The great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this.

The dream is certain.

and its interpretation sure.

As Daniel speaks to Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel will tell Nebuchadnezzar about a kingdom that

was the head of gold and he says that’s the Babylonian Empire.

And he will speak to the king about the shoulder and the arms of silver and he will tell

him that’s the Medo-Persian Empire.

And he will speak to him about the belly and the thighs of brass and he will reveal that

that is the Grecian Empire.

And he speaks to him about the iron legs and the

feed of iron mixed with clay, he will declare that that is the Roman Empire as you go

through the entire book.

And as history is fulfilled, in the days of the kings of the Roman Empire, God says, I

will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed.

Wonder of all wonders when Jesus there Luke chapter 9 tells his disciples about the

kingdom that he is going to establish and about the fact that it is going to exist while

they are still alive.

Guess what kings are ruling the Roman Empire.

God speaks concerning His Son being born.

He speaks of where He will be born.

He speaks of the rule that He will have.

And He speaks concerning the nature of His Kingdom and the very nations that will be in

power when that Kingdom is brought forth.

Now you answer for yourself, what factor of all of those could a man have controlled on

the day he was born?

Alright, I give up.

Don’t tell my wife, even I can take a hint.

But then consider that God made prophecies concerning his lineage.

Now some of you were born to good reputable families.

Some of you, I don’t know.

but you just have to tell me one way or another.

But the reality is this, you didn’t get a say.

You can pick your friends.

You can’t pick your family.

You weren’t asked what family to be born into.

You were born, and you got what you got.

But consider that God

when he brought forth his son into this world, fulfilled prophecies concerning that son’s

lineage.

Go back to very beginning, to Genesis chapter 3.

In Genesis chapter 3, God will speak there in the garden after that first sin was

committed, after the things that had occurred there in the eating of the fruit of the tree

of the knowledge of good and evil.

And in Genesis chapter 3 and in verse 15, God will make a statement concerning the

judgment of these things.

He says in verse 14, to the serpent, because you have done this, you are cursed more than

all cattle.

And more than every beast of the field, on your belly you shall

go and you shall eat dust all the days of your life and I will put enmity between you and

the woman and between your seed and her seed he shall bruise your head and you shall

bruise his heel God will speak to the serpent and he will declare that Satan through his

actions through his choices would cause an injury to occur to the seed of not man but

woman

and that that seed of woman would cause a death blow to Satan.

Then consider what Isaiah writes 800 years before Jesus is born.

Isaiah will write in Isaiah chapter 7 concerning the coming Messiah.

In Isaiah chapter 7 and in verse 14 rather

He will say, therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign.

Behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name, Emmanuel.

When you turn over to Luke chapter one, we find that…

God fulfilled exactly what he said in Luke chapter 1 and in verse 35.

As the angel is speaking to Mary, Mary said to the angel, verse 34, how can this be since

I do not know a man?

She’s not saying I walked around this city and there are no men here.

That’s not what she’s saying.

She’s saying she’s never had sexual relations with a man.

She is a virgin.

And she says, how in the world am I going to have a child being a virgin?

And the angel answered and 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 angel will make it clear to Mary.

that the thing which is going to occur, the child which is to be born will not come forth

from man’s seed, but will come forth as an act of God’s creation.

But then turn to Galatians chapter four.

Paul as he writes to the church at Galatia.

as he writes to these Gentiles and Jews that are together in this congregation.

We’ll write to them in verse four of chapter four, when the fullness of time had come, God

sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under

the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

Paul will point out that God not only sent

his son not only sent his son born not of a man but of a woman but he sent his son at the

exact right moment he intended to

If Jesus had been born in 200 BC, it wouldn’t have been the right time.

If Jesus had been born in 2026 AD, it wouldn’t have been the right time.

If Jesus had been born on the day after the first sin had been committed, it wouldn’t have

been the right time.

No, Paul makes it clear.

God brought forth his Son at the exact time that was right.

Because God doesn’t do things by way of happenstance.

Because God doesn’t make a statement and hope it turns out.

God speaks and it happens.

But then consider as well that not only did God make it clear that Jesus would be born of

a woman, not of a man, but that he would be born to the descendants of Abraham, to the

descendants of Judah, to the descendants of David.

generation after generation after generation hundreds of years separated from one another

God is going to make it clear that this is going to occur as he fulfills and brings forth

this prophecy over 1600 years.

Genesis 12 God is going to tell Abraham that his seed singular as Paul points out will be

a blessing to all nations.

and God will fulfill it.

As Jacob is preparing to die and Jacob makes a prophecy concerning his son Judah, Jacob

will declare that from Judah will come forth the scepter, that from Judah will come forth

a king, and Jesus will be a descendant of Judah.

In 2 Samuel chapter 7 in verse 12, God will tell David,

that from his son God will bring forth one who will rule forever.

And all of these things will be fulfilled if you look at Luke chapter 3.

Luke chapter 3 beginning in verse 31 Luke will speak concerning these things and Luke

chapter 3 verse 31 as he describes the lineage of Jesus.

He says that he is the son of Melia, the son of Menon, the son of Mathiah, the son of

Nathan, the son of David, the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of

Salman, the son of Naishon, the son of Amenadam, the son of Ram, the son of Hizran, the

son of Pires, the son of Judah.

Luke looks at that lineage and he says, check, check, check, check.

He goes on and he says, the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham.

You go forward to, or go backwards rather, to Matthew chapter 1.

You see, because Luke gives the lineage of Joseph.

And someone might say, well, that doesn’t count.

You see, you just told me he was born of a woman.

Joseph didn’t have anything to do with it.

You can’t use Joseph’s lineage.

It’s not going to work.

Well, that’s okay.

Because God doesn’t do things by happenstance.

Notice in Matthew’s record as Matthew makes it clearer.

that both through the lineage of Mary and through the lineage of Joseph, it’s going to be

fulfilled.

Notice what we read in Matthew chapter 1.

We’re not going to read all of it.

We’re going to start in verses 1 through 3.

book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Abraham begot Isaac.

Isaac begot Jacob.

Jacob begot Judah and his brothers.

Judah begot Peres and Zeran by Tanpar.

Peres begot Hezron and Hezron begot Ram.

He’s going to go all the way down.

And notice what you find in verse 15.

uh

Jacob, Jacob, got Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called

Christ.

I got them backwards.

Luke describes Mary’s lineage.

m Matthew describes Joseph’s.

Shouldn’t always believe my own notes.

They’re not prophetic.

What do you find?

Doesn’t matter which one you use.

You use Mary, you get back, and you find every prophecy fulfilled.

You use Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus in the form of his upraising in his household

and his Jewish lineage, and he fulfills every prophecy.

But then consider the details of his death.

We’d be here all day if we discussed everything in between those two, but we’re just

dealing with his birth and we’re just dealing with his death.

In Psalm 41, the psalmist writer will declare in prophecy in Psalm 41 and in verse 9, even

my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against

me.

The psalmist writer hundreds of years before Judas Iscariot was ever born.

will prophesy concerning the betrayal of one of Jesus’ closest friends.

The betrayal of the Messiah by the one who sat at bread with him the very night he

betrayed him.

You turn to Zechariah.

Zechariah will further prophesy concerning these matters.

In Zechariah chapter 11,

Zechariah chapter 11 and in verse 13, notice what we read.

And the Lord said to me, throw it to the potter, that princely price they set on me.” Now

notice, this is the Lord who says that there was a price set on him.

And notice what it was.

So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord for the

potter.

The price of a slave is what this was, thirty pieces of silver.

And for the price of a slave, Jesus Christ is going to be betrayed.

but not only is God going to be specific that a friend is going to betray him, not only is

he going to be specific and detailed that he is going to betray him for thirty pieces of

silver, but he is further going to point out that those thirty pieces of silver will be

cast back to the ones who gave it.

And as you open the text of the New Testament and you turn to Luke chapter 6

Luke chapter 6 and in verse 16, we read Judas, the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who

became a traitor.

Luke’s going to record that this is the one who betrayed Jesus.

His name was Judas Iscariot.

Turn to Mark chapter 14.

In Mark chapter 14 and in verse 10,

We find there the text says, then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief

priest to betray him to them.

Judas goes because he wants to be paid, but Judas is not going to get to decide how much

he’s paid.

They’re going to decide what to pay him.

Judas is the friend who is going to betray his very Lord.

Turn to Matthew chapter 26.

Matthew chapter 26 beginning in verse 14 and notice what Matthew records.

Then one of the twelve called Judas Iscariot went to the chief priest and said, what are

you willing to give me if I deliver him to you?

and they counted out to him 30 pieces of silver.

So from that time he sought opportunity to betray him.

Turn to chapter 27.

Matthew chapter 27 verse 3, then Judas his betrayer, seeing that he had been condemned.

was remorseful and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and

elders, saying, have sinned by betraying innocent blood.

They said, what is that to us?

You see to it.

Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed and went and hanged

himself.

But the chief priests took the silver pieces and said, It is not lawful to put them into

the treasury, because they are the price of blood.

And they consulted together, and they bought with them the potter’s field to bury

strangers in.

Therefore that field has been called the field of blood to this day.

Then they fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, And they took the

thirty pieces of silver, the value of him who was priced, whom they of the children of

Israel priced,

gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord directed me.”

There’s a lot of things you can control as a person.

You can’t control where you’re born.

You can’t control what family you’re born into.

You probably can’t control the price your enemies put on your head or the willingness of

your friend to take it.

And as you’re hanging on the cross,

You can’t control the fact that he decides to take it back, throw it at their feet as he

goes out to hang himself, or what they’ll do with it afterwards.

But when God makes a prophecy, he’s specific, he’s detailed, and he’s right.

but then consider even the place of his burial is prophesied in Isaiah chapter 53.

The prophet Isaiah will write beginning in verse 9, and they made his grave with the

wicked, but with the rich at his death because he had done no violence.

nor was any deceit in his mouth.

Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him.

He has put him to grief.

When you make his soul uh an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his

days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

He shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied by his knowledge.

My righteous servant shall justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.”

Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with

the strong because he poured out his soul unto death and he was numbered with the

transgressors and he bore the sins of many and made intercession for the transgressors.”

As they take Jesus to the cross, as they lift him up on that cross, he is lifted up in

between two

thieves.

And before the deed is done, one of those thieves coming to his senses will make it clear

we are here because we deserve to be here.

but he doesn’t.

Even that thief will make the point that this innocent person in whom there was no guile,

who was tried three different times and found innocent every single time, was lifted up

and numbered with the transgressors, even when he wasn’t one.

And yet, as he is buried in Matthew chapter 27, we find that Matthew will point out the

location of his burial.

No, Matthew’s not going to walk through the locations all throughout the gardens of Israel

and say, this is the tomb.

Make sure that when you go visit Israel in modern times, you can walk straight to the

right tomb.

No, that’s not what he’s going to do.

Matter of fact, what he is going to do…

He is going to write, now when evening had come there came a rich man from Arimathea named

Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus.

This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.

Then Pilate commanded the body to be given to him.

When Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his

new tomb, which he had hewn out of the rock.

And he rolled a large stone against the door of the tomb and departed.

And Mary Magdalene was there and the other Mary sitting opposite the tomb.

You see, Isaiah said, he’s going to be killed with the transgressors, but he’s going to be

buried among the rich.

Because he’s going to be buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, a tomb that had never

been used.

but then he’s going to be resurrected.

In Psalm 16, the psalmist writer will write concerning Jesus, will write concerning the

Messiah, that he’s not going to go to the grave like everyone else.

God is not going to permit him to be put in the grave, to be there, to decay, and to

remain there until judgment.

Rather in Psalm 16 verse 9, we read, Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices.

My flesh also will rest in hope, for you will not leave my soul in sheol.

Nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption.

You will show me the path of life, and your presence is fullness of joy at your right

hand, our pleasures forevermore.” Someone say, well, he’s talking about the resurrection.

He’s talking about the final day.

He’s talking about, this is David talking about himself.

In Psalm 110…

In Psalm 110 and in verse 1, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make

your enemies your footstool.

The Lord shall send the rod of your strength out of Zion, rule in the midst of your

enemies, David writes.

But when you turn to Acts chapter 2,

after the events of that Sunday morning, after Jesus has been resurrected from the grave

by the power of God, after he has walked through the earth and spoken to over 500

witnesses according to what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15.

after he has shown himself to be alive and ascended into heaven and given his apostles

instructions to remain in Jerusalem until they are endued with power from on high and

after that event has occurred and begun Peter is going to preach and he is going to say

this Acts chapter 2 verse 22 men of Israel hear these words

Jesus of Nazareth a man attested to by God to you by miracles wonders and signs which he

did through him in your midst as you yourselves also know Him being determined by the him

being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God You have taken by

lawless hands have crucified and put to death Whom God raised up having loose to the pains

of death because it was not possible that he should be held by it

For David says concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is at my

right hand that I may not be shaken.

Therefore my heart rejoiced and my tongue was made glad.

Moreover my flesh also will rest in hope, for you will not leave my soul in Hades, nor

will you allow your Holy One to see corruption.

You have made known to me the ways of life.

You will make me full of joy in your presence.

And notice he says, men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David,

that he is both dead and buried, and that his tomb is with us to this day.

As Peter spoke those words in the midst of the assembly, Peter could have walked out of

that assembly and walked to the grave of David and said, see, he’s still here.

And they all knew it.

But he goes on to say,

Therefore, being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the

fruit of his body, according to the flesh, he would raise up the Christ to sit on his

throne.

He foreseeing this spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that his soul was not

left in Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.

This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses.

Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God and having received from the Father the

promise of the Holy Spirit, he poured out that which you now see and hear, for David did

not ascend into the heavens.

But he says himself, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your

enemies your footstool.

Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus whom you

crucified both Lord.

and Christ.

As we conclude, know this, we do not follow cunningly devised fables.

We do not follow myths.

We do not worship a savior who is dead and in the grave.

We do not follow

the stories of a man who lived in a far-off land of which there is little evidence about

what he said, what he did, or how he acted.

No, we follow Jesus, of whom there were prophecies hundreds and thousands of years before

he was born.

of the very nature of his birth, of the very place of his birth, of the family from which

he would come, of the lineage through which he would proceed generation after generation

after generation, that he would be born in the days of the Roman Empire, that in the days

of the Roman Empire he would set up a kingdom which would never be destroyed, which Jesus

said in Matthew chapter 16, I have come to build my church.

and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” And he told his disciples that while

you are yet alive, that kingdom will be set up, and you will see it come with power.

And it did.

And so Peter would preach on the day of Pentecost that those same people who had put that

same Jesus to death

now needed to confront the fact that God had made him both Lord and Christ.

That means Messiah.

He’s the Savior of the world.

He’s been established as being what He said He was by prophecy from the beginning of the

world until today.

So the question for you as you consider who Jesus is.

is what are you going to do with the knowledge?

As I mentioned before, this is not an exhaustive list of prophecies.

As a matter of fact, there are 300 prophecies about Jesus.

And every single one of them, he fulfilled.

So if He is Lord and Christ, the question for you is, are you obeying Him?

Jesus would say in John chapter 12, and in verse 48, by my words you will be judged.

If you’re here this morning and you’re outside the body of Christ, if you’re outside of

the kingdom that He built and established for your salvation, if you’re outside of the

redemption that was prophesied of old time that He might bring about the salvation of the

world,

If you have not been obedient and submissive to him, may I encourage you to begin today,

because you’re not assured of tomorrow.

But you can be assured of this, the one who spoke in Genesis chapter 3 of the seed of

woman and spoke concerning the one who was going to be born and the place he was going to

be born and the lineage from whom he was going to be born and the nature of his birth and

the nature of his death and the place of his burial and the place of his resurrection and

the power that he would have.

If that God could speak accurately about this, then know this.

He also spoke accurately about this.

He said, is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment.

There’s coming a day where you will stand before the Lord and the Christ, and you will be

judged by His words.

Are you ready?

If you have need of the invitation to be obedient or submissive to Him, to return to Him

in righteousness and obedience, why not come forward now as we stand and as we sing?