Jesus - The Promised Savior
Isaiah 7:14 - Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.
3 ways we ought to respond to God’s fulfilled promise of a Savior
I. Accept His Credentials
A. His lineage
Matthew 1:18 - Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit.
“Apart from Jesus’ being both human and divine, there is no gospel. The incarnation of Jesus Christ is the central fact of Christianity. The whole superstructure of Christian theology is built on it. The essence and the power of the gospel is that God became man and that, by being both wholly God and wholly man, He was able to reconcile men to God. Jesus’ virgin birth, His substitutionary atoning death, resurrection, ascension, and return are all integral aspects of His deity. They stand or fall together. If any of those teachings—all clearly taught in the New Testament—is rejected, the entire gospel is rejected. None makes sense, or could have any significance or power, apart from the others. If those things were not true, even Jesus’ moral teachings would be suspect, because if He misrepresented who He was by preposterously claiming equality with God, how could anything else He said be trusted? Or if the gospel writers misrepresented who He was, why should we trust their word about anything else He said or did?” The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, Matthew 1-7, p. 13
B. His birth announcement
Matthew 1:20 - …behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to [Joseph] in a dream…
Matthew 1:19 - Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly.
Matthew 1:20 - “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.”
C. Fulfilled prophecy
Matthew 1:22-23 - Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.”
Isaiah 7:14 - Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a Son, and she will call His name Immanuel.
“Stoner says that by using the modern science of probability in reference to eight prophecies…“we find that the chance that any man might have lived down to the present time and fulfilled all eight prophecies is 1 in 1017.” That would be 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000 (one hundred quintillion or one hundred thousand billion). In order to help us comprehend this staggering probability, Stoner illustrates it by supposing that “we take 1017 silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They will cover all the state two feet deep. Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up one silver dollar and say that this is the right one. What chance would he have of getting the right one? Just the same chance that the prophets would have had of writing these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man, from there day to the present time, providing they wrote them in their own wisdom.” This means these prophecies were either given by inspiration of God or the prophets just wrote them as they thought they should be. In such a case, the prophets had just one chance in 1017 of having them come true in any man, but they all came true in Christ.” McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, p. 377
II. Admit You Need Him
A. Your need is revealed by His name
Matthew 1:21 - She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus…
The name “Jesus” is a form of the Hebrew name Joshua…“Yahweh will save.”
B. Your need is revealed by His purpose
Matthew 1:21 - …you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.
John 3:16-17 - For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.
Romans 3:23 - All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Isaiah 59:2 - …your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God…
Isaiah 64:6 - …all of our righteous deeds are like filthy rags.
III. Embrace His Mission
Matthew 1:24-25 - Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.
A. Grow in your walk with Him
Here are the Three Questions…
What do I learn about God?
What do I learn about humans, and by implication, myself?
What should I do in response to what I have learned?
B. Labor in His service
