“Celebrate the Coming of Jesus”

Series: Celebrate the Joy of Jesus [on screen]

Rev. Matthew C. McCraw, EdD

First Baptist Church, Bartow, Florida

December 15, 2019

Introductory Comments:

At Christmas time we sometimes sing a popular song called, Here Comes Santa Clause. Many little children look forward to the legend of the coming of Santa Clause. There is celebration all over in anticipation of presents. Later, there is celebration among children and sleep deprivation among parents when there are presents under the tree. 

Well, right now we are indeed in the middle of celebration, but we’re celebrating someone much greater than Santa Clause: we’re celebrating Jesus! We’re in the middle of a series called, “Celebrate the Joy of Jesus.”

Last week we celebrated that Jesus is God. This week, we celebrate the coming of Jesus. 

Let’s pray together as we get ready to celebrate. 

(prayer)

Nearly everyone who has ever attended church knows that Christmas is about remembering the coming of Jesus to the earth. Even those people that only come to church on Christmas and Easter can remember that, right? Christmas is about the coming of Jesus, Easter is about the resurrection of Jesus. 

Well, today, we’re going to celebrate Jesus’ coming because it is indeed worthy of discussion and celebration. 

As we do so, we will look at four aspects concerning Jesus’ coming.

First, . . .

I. Celebrate that Jesus’ coming was prophesied. [on screen]

When we speak of prophecy we mean something that is said about something or someone that will happen in the future. 

Prophecy is all throughout the Bible, especially in the Old Testament. Many of the prophecies of the Old Testament have to do with the coming of the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One. They prophesy the coming of Jesus!

Let’s look at a few of these prophecies.

First, notice from the very beginning of things on the earth, the coming of Jesus was prophesied by God Himself! As sin came into the world God spoke to the serpent regarding his temptation of Eve. Listen to what God says to the serpent and what He says regarding the offspring of Eve. 

Genesis 3:14-15 says, “14 So the Lord God said to the serpent: Because you have done this, you are cursed more than any livestock and more than any wild animal. You will move on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life. 15 I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” [on screen]

God says to the serpent that you will strike the heel of the offspring of the woman (this refers to the crucifixion of Jesus), but the offspring of the woman will strike your head (this refers to Jesus resurrection and His conquering of sin). God prophesied the coming of Jesus and the work of the Gospel thousands of years before it happened. This is the greatest of all the prophesies, but there’s more!

When God called Abraham out of the land of Ur and chose to bless him and make him into a great nation, God said that He would not only bless Abraham, but Abraham’s offspring would be a blessing to the world. 

Check out what God says to Abraham in Genesis 22:17-18: “17 I will indeed bless you and make your offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your offspring will possess the city gates of their enemies. 18 And all the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring because you have obeyed my command.” [on screen]

The nations would be blessed by the offspring of Abraham. Now, Abraham had some great offspring, but all the nations were not blessed by most of them. In fact, many of the offspring of Abraham brought destruction to the nations. There was only one offspring of Abraham who would bless the entire world: it’s Jesus the Messiah! He is the blessing that was prophesied to Abraham long ago by God Himself. 

There’s more! The prophet Isaiah had several prophecies concerning the coming of Jesus. 

He prophesied that a special ch