A LOOK BACK…

By way of review…we’ve seen how God led His chosen people, Israel, out of horrible slavery in Egypt. He gave them instructions (laws) on how to live close to Him, in freedom, in a covenantrelationship. He summed up these laws in ten commands, with the first being all-encompassing: Put me (God) above everything else. Do not worship other things. But the people of God continued to rebel against Him, calling these laws a new kind of slavery. But He loved His people, and God gave them a system of sacrifice where they could substitute the life and blood of an innocent animal in place of their own life—the payment required for rebellion against God. God accepted this, but only as a symbol of what was to come. Last week we saw the broken pattern, cycle of sin and repentance the people would live in…in their times of difficulty and in need of help they would come to God and worship Him, but when things were going well, they returned to worshipping other things. God sent them Judges, Kings and Prophets to lead them and remind them what God had called them to be and do. This was a time where everyone did what was right in their own eyes and most of the time they did evil in the eyes of God. God told them through prophets of a coming savior, a messiah who would save the people once and for all from their sins and bondage…and thats where we left off last week…

HOPE…

-- As I was studying this week, one word kept coming to my mind…the word HOPE.

HOPE...
-- HOPE is a word we use a lot in our culture. All of us at one time had HOPES and dreams of what our lives would be like. And the truth of it all, for some of us, the HOPES and dreams we had for our future, a lot of it played out, and things are pretty satisfying. But for others, not so much. HOPE…it kind of got lost in the pain, in the problems and frustrations, and now, the outlook is dim, not much HOPE in your heart…honestly, maybe hearing the idea of HOPE kind of just makes you a little sick to your stomach…what do we do about that? Can we really experience HOPE even though our circumstances are messy? What does it really mean to have HOPE? I’ve come to learn that most of what I called HOPE in my own life was really just WISHFUL THINKING.

BIBLICAL HOPE...
-- I think the biblical definition of HOPE is a little different. Wishful Thinking says “I HOPE you get what you want for your birthday”, “I HOPE your family makes it to Alaska this year”, “I HOPE we don’t have mosquitos this summer”, “I HOPE you have the best anniversary ever”…all of those “HOPES” may or may not come true.
-- When the bible says we can have HOPE, it isn’t just a good wish, it means something that is certain, something we can put our TRUST in, our FAITH in. Something SURE.

[HEBREWS 11:1]
"Now faith is the reality of what is HOPED for, the proof of what is not seen. 2 For by this our ancestors were approved."

[HEBREWS 6:13-20]
"13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater to swear by, he swore by himself: 14 I will indeed bless you, and I will greatly multiply you. 15 And so, after waiting patiently, Abraham obtained the promise. 16 For people swear by something greater than themselves, and for them a confirming oath ends every dispute. 17 Because God wanted to show his unchangeable purpose even more clearly to the heirs of the promise, he guaranteed it with an oath, 18 so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to seize the HOPE set before us. 19 We have this HOPE as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain. 20 Jesus has entered there on our behalf as a forerunner, because he has become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

[HEBREWS 10:23]
"23 Let us hold on to the confession of our HOPE without wavering, since he who promised is faithful.

ISRAEL IN BABYLON...
-- While the people of God were in Babylon, they suffered for 70 years. They certainly had moments, maybe long seasons of doubt, believing that all was lost and that the promises God had made with Abraham Isaac and Jacob were no longer going to happen. They had lost HOPE. But…had HOPE really died? They wondered what had happened to the COVENANT God had made? Did he forget? Why was he silent? Why hasn’t he RESCUED us? What about all of the PROPHECIES telling us of a coming Messiah who would RESCUE us and REDEEM us and LEAD us?
-- As I think about those questions…it is pretty easy for me to compare those feelings to my own when I am in a season of difficulty, a season of suffering. There have been times when I have felt like God was silent…that he was far away and had forgotten me. I have had real times of struggle when I lost HOPE. I am sure you have had those moments too.
-- Today: My prayer is that through God’s Word, we would be reminded that GOD IS A PROMISE KEEPER, he practices STEADFAST LOVE and WILL NEVER FORGET ABOUT US…he is perfectly accomplishing his plans even if we can’t see it or understand it. As God writes his love story, he uses messy people and messy situations to reveal his grace and glory. He did that in Israel and he is doing it in us today. So let’s look at how he kept his promises…
-- I wish I had time to unpack all of the things that God was reminding me of this week as I studied the prophecies of his coming and the HOPE we have because of the birth of Jesus, the promised MESSIAH. There are over 300 specific prophecies about Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection found in the Bible…and we could spend weeks looking at all of them, but we just don’t have time today…so I’m just going to focus on a few areas of prophecy to help tie the bow around the promises the Father made and how he fulfilled them in Jesus His Son…

…SCENE ONE: HOPE PROMISED…
[THE GAP + PROPHECIES + GENEALOGIES]

THE GAP...
-- After Judah was captured by the Babylonians in 586 BC, they were in bondage and slaves for 70 years. This was part of God’s plan (discipline for Judah) and was prophesied about by Jeremiah. While in exile, Daniel was studying the scroll of Jeremiah and came across this prophecy made by Jeremiah.

[Jeremiah 25:7-14] [Jeremiah 29:10-14]
-- This was the HOPE Daniel and the people of Israel had wanted, had been promised, were waiting for. Daniel then proceeded to confess his sin and the sin of Israel and ask for God to hear him and forgive them and fulfill the HOPE that had been promised.

[Daniel 9:4-19]
-- Daniels prayer is so beautiful…

-- And God heard him and sent him an angel, Gabriel actually! Which I think is cool!
-- Gabriel is mentioned 4 times in the Bible
1] Daniel 8 explaining Daniels vision
2] Daniel 9 explaining the 70 weeks prophecy
3] Luke 1 announcing the birth of John to his father Zechariah
4] Luke 1 announcing the coming Messiah/Jesus to Mary

[Daniel 9:22-23]
-- Gabriel, being sent from God, gave Daniel...
1] Wisdom and insight to his visions
2] Wanted him to know that God was listening to his prayers and was sent to come the second he started praying (that is a cool things to know) and
3] Wanted Daniel to know that he was precious to God (what a sweet word)

-- I don’t want to get lost in the weeds, we could spend hours here…but basically Gabriel tells Daniel that God is going to do what he said he would do, that Daniel can place his HOPE in God…He told him that
1] Jerusalem will be rebuilt [start 444 BC by Neh, done 395 BC]
2] Israel would be established again as a nation [and they were]
3] Temple would be restored [priests, sacrifices]
4] That the Messiah will come [he did!]

-- This was great news…full of HOPE and God delivered on His promise…and this was inline with the other prophecies about the coming Messiah

THE PROPHECIES...
-- Here are some of the Prophesies about the coming Messiah...
1] GEN 3:15...Messiah would be a man (also Heb 2:14-18)
2] GEN 22:18...Messiah would be a descendant of Abraham
3] GEN 49:10...Messiah would be a descendant of Judah
4] GEN 49:10...Messiah would be a King (scepter/staff)
5] GEN 49:10...Messiah would arrive before 70 AD (not depart from Judah…destruction of Temple in 70 AD all tribes were scattered)
6] DEUT 18:15-19...Messiah will be a Prophet (like Moses) speaking directly face to face with God
7] ISA 7:14...Messiah would be born of a virgin
8] MICAH 5:2...Messiah would be born in Bethlehem

THE GENEALOGIES...
-- Two (2) are given, one in MATTHEW 1:1-17 and the other in LUKE 3:23-38.
-- We don’t have time to go through them but both are important. These genealogies are important in establishing the claim that Jesus is the promised Messiah.
--> MATTHEW: Matthew records the genealogy of Jesus from Abraham. Matthew wanted to prove that Joseph was a direct-line blood descendant of King David and because of that Jesus had the legal right to inherit the throne of David (even through adoption).
--> LUKE: But because Joseph wasn’t Jesus’ actual biological father, Luke wanted to prove Jesus was the Messiah by creating a genealogy that traced Jesus’ blood line all the way back to Adam through Mary’s blood line. Luke proved that not only did Jesus have the right to claim the THRONE OF DAVID he was also from the BLOOD OF DAVID. Jesus qualified to be the King, the Messiah.

…SCENE TWO: HOPE DELIVERED…
[THE NATIVITY STORY]

[LUKE 1:26-38]
[LUKE 2:1-20]

-- FINALLY!! Happy Birthday Jesus! HOPE has arrived!
-- So much waiting, so much anticipation. At exactly the right time, Jesus arrived. He fulfilled all the prophecies that were made about him and would begin to fulfill all of the other ones made about his life, ministry, his death and his resurrection…this is what we will be looking at over the next few weeks…I am so thankful for Jesus.

…SCENE THREE: WE HAVE HOPE TOO!…
[GENTILES ARE BROUGHT NEAR]

[GALATIANS 4:4-7] CSB
“4 When the time came to completion, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then God has made you an heir.”

[EPHESIANS 2:11-14] CSB
“11 So, then, remember that at one time you were Gentiles in the flesh—called “the uncircumcised” by those called “the circumcised,” which is done in the flesh by human hands. 12 At that time you were WITHOUT CHRIST, EXCLUDED from the citizenship of Israel, and FOREIGNERS to the covenants of promise, WITHOUT HOPE and WITHOUT GOD in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility.”

[Romans 15:10-13] CSB
“10 Again it says, REJOICE!, you Gentiles, with his people! 11 And again, PRAISE THE LORD, all you Gentiles; let all the peoples PRAISE HIM! 12 And again, Isaiah says, ‘The root of Jesse will appear, the one who rises to rule the Gentiles; the Gentiles will HOPE in him.’ 13 Now may the God of HOPE fill you with all joy and peace as you believe so that you may overflow with HOPE by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

RESPOND, REFLECT & COMMUNION

I would like to give you a chance to respond to God…

—> LETS TAKE A MINUTE TO THANK HIM, RESPOND TO HIM, CONFESS OUR SIN TO HIM, EXAMINE OUR HEARTS BEFORE COMMUNION…

—> WHAT IS JESUS SAYING TO YOU TODAY?

—> WHAT IS JESUS ASKING YOU TO DO?