Messianic Messages - Advent
First B Jackson
2025-12-14

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Showing up in a lot of Christmas carols and a lot of Christmas music because I want you to put yourself in that place. Today is joy Sunday or Galatay Sunday Rejoice Sunday. Third Sunday of Advent. When I I grew up, I mentioned this last week. We never did this Advent thing.

I didn't know anything about it. I like it but I never did that. Hope and then peace and then joy. Next week will be love and then the Christ candle but this Sunday, I'm glad to be stepping out of the minor prophets and into the New Testament but I want to mention even of the ones that we've not yet covered. So, we've covered seven out of 12 of the minor prophets in the last eight or nine weeks, I think and we're going to keep on going but after Christmas.

So, messianic prophecies that are within those prophets. I will leave out for now the major prophets and there are a lot more because there are hundreds and hundreds of these. Couple couple of 100, maybe 370 something depending on who you ask and what they count but there are a lot of em. I'm not going to do that many. I'm just doing a few from the minor prophets, the ones that I thought of.

Out of Egypt, I called my son and we'll see that in the Christmas narrative because of fleeing governmental or the the Herod's decree, right? The slaughter of innocents. They escaped to Egypt and then out of Egypt, I called my son, Hosea 11. When my people were young, when Israel was a youth, I loved him and out of Egypt, I called my son from Hosea. We haven't covered Hosea yet.

Now, Hosea thirteen fourteen, this one is it's judgment, really. He is forecasting for a people who had walked away from him. Judgment, he says, shall I ransom them from the power of shield? Shall I redeem them from death? Rhetorical questions.

Death, where are your thorns? Shield, where's your sting? And then God says, compassion will be hidden from my sight. Now Paul takes that in first Corinthians 15 and he quotes it. Some people say he misquotes it, but he quotes it.

I don't think he misquotes it. Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol? Yes. Instead of what you would expect as a no from the Old Testament passage. Shall I redeem them from death?

What Paul says is, where is your sting? Death, where is your sting? Right? He's saying it because he knows of the redemptive power of Christ that's available in Jesus. Joel two thirty two, optimistic and it will come about that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Peter calls back to this on the day of Pentecost. He also calls back to the coming of the Holy Spirit passage. It will come about that everyone who calls the name of the Lord will be saved. Here we have Micah five two which we covered last week and the week before but as for you, Bethlehem, he's calling out the place where this great ruler, Messiah, would be born but as for you, Bethlehem, a prophet, little to be among the clans of Judah from you, one, will come forth for me to be ruler in Israel. A contrast with all the bad rulers that they'd had.

His times are coming forth are from long ago, from the very days of eternity. Merry Christmas. That one we use every year this time. Micah. Haggai.

This is what the Lord of army says. The Lord of armies comes up a lot in the prophets and it's a powerful term. God is the one who raises up and the one who tears down kingdoms. For this is what the Lord of army says. Once more, in a little while, I'm going to shake the heavens and the earth, sea also in the dry land.

I will shake all the nations and they will come with the wealth of all the nations and I will fill this house, my people with glory, says the Lord of armies and then you've heard this saying, you know, it's all God's anyway. It really is all gods anyway. He says, the silver is mine. The gold is mine. Declares the Lord of armies.

The latter glory of this house, my people will be greater than the former, says the Lord armies and in this place, I will give peace, declares the Lord of armies. That's looking forward to Messiah. Zechariah. Now, listen Joshua, you high priest, to you and your friends who are sitting in front of you. Indeed, they are men who are assigned For behold, I'm going to bring in my servant, the branch.

That one is one that I think is a play on words. A lot of people see in that branch is Netzer which is like a Nazarene from Nazareth and so, my servant, we're thinking it's looking forward to Jesus. Zechariah six continues in that same vein there. Then, say to him, the Lord of army says this, behold, there's a man who is called the branch, Netzer. For he will be a branch out from where he is and he will build the temple of the Lord.

Yes, it is he who will build the temple of the Lord and he who will bear the majesty and sit and rule on his throne. So, will be a priest on his throne and the council of peace will be between the two offices. That's looking forward to Jesus. Rejoice greatly daughter of Zion. We trounce this one out on Palm Sunday every year.

Rejoice greatly daughter of Zion. Shout in triumph. The triumphal entry. Daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your king is coming to you.

He's righteous and he's endowed with salvation. Humble, mattered on a donkey. Even on the colt, the foal of a donkey and we have a New Testament passage that we have several New Testament passages that point back to Zechariah nine and and apply it to Jesus. Zechariah 12. There are not many more of these.

Just out just so you know. I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of pleading so that they will look at me whom they pierced. This was before crucifixion was even a thing, but it's a forecast. Prophecy is notoriously difficult to untangle on the front side of it coming to pass, but it is obvious after the fact and they will mourn for him like one mourning for an only son and they will weep bitterly over him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn. Malachi three.

Behold, I'm sending out my messenger and he will clear away before me, the forerunner and the Lord whom you are seeking will suddenly come to his temple and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of armies. And Malachi four, five, and six. Behold, I'm going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord and he will turn the hearts of the fathers back to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers so that I will not come and strike the land with complete destruction. That sounds like the minor prophets we know that striking the land with the destruction, right? That's the judgment part of it but he's saying out of his mercy, not only is he going to send Christ but he will send a messenger before Christ to make Christ obvious to people.

So, that's happening. So, if you consider the historical context of the New Testament, first century land of Israel. If you consider the context, you have to think about there has been a four hundred year lapse between Malachi, that's the last of the minor prophets that we covered and the events that happen in the gospels. Now, we have Malachi and then in Canon order, you have Matthew right behind it, had a professor that said in my gospels class that from Malachi to Matthew, looks like somebody took a a plate, broke it into two halves, and then you put it back together and you can't even see the same. They just go together seamlessly.

Four hundred years elapsed though between Malachi and the events of the gospels and if you read the minor prophets and the major prophets, multiple times, it is forecast those prophets that there will come a time when you will not hear from the Lord. Now, we've covered that in Amos. We covered it in a couple of different minor prophets that we've hit so far. That people would be longing for a word from God and they would not receive it. So, they still have the word that they had, the Torah and the Pentateuch, right?

And the prophets. They still had that and they were able to examine it and there were people that had been living for four hundred years without a an authoritative word from God. This is often called the intertestamental silence of God and so we have the Old Testament clearly defined and then we have lot of Jewish writings in between that aren't canon. Nobody considers them canon and then before we get to Matthew or Luke, we're going to use Luke today but I want you to consider the political setting. So, the Roman government practice syncretism.

They were a pluralistic society will say except in all religious beliefs and philosophical teachings and even governmental ideologies so long as they were held together under the Roman system. Like, we're in charge. Do whatever you want to do to keep the peace, but we're in charge, and at the tip of a spear, we're in charge. Religious freedom, political freedom, and freedom of thought for the individual were touted, but the government did enforce it. So, like I said, it's at the tip of a spear or at the edge of a sword.

Judea was a client kingdom. So, they were able to have some self rule and the way that this happened in this time, Herod the Great was the one who supposedly was in charge of the Jews. He's the king of the Jews, small K, right? The client kingdom of Rome. Now, he was not of the line of David and he was Edomian which means he's an Edomite.

He is one of the historic enemies of the people of God but he's still the guy that was trained and educated by Rome and he's the one who was in charge. Not everybody liked the guy so much but he did provide work. The Jews held a lot of distrust and hatred for the Roman Empire. They were the oppressors just like Assyria had been, just like Babylon had been. They were the oppressors, and so they were somewhat unwilling subjects.

So even if they got to have some freedom to rule themselves, there was a resentment for the foreign Roman government. It was very apparent in the New Testament. It's on every page. You can see it. So, they had this measure of freedom both in their governing system and they had the Sanhedrin but it was under under Roman domination really And part of that governing body had gone complicit with the government and that helped to enrich them.

So they were I'll get to that in the economic setting. Roman government required everything was ultimately under their authority. So the economic setting is this, client king Herod the Great employed a lot of laborers. Laborers were lower class, he commissioned a lot of pellet works. It did take some people who we might consider middle middle class.

There were extensive renovations to the temple and the Temple Mount and y'all have all seen images, kind of recreation images of that temple. That was Herod's doing in Jerusalem. The palaces, if you've ever been on a study tour or a tour of Israel and they took you to Masada, that's one of those palaces. If you've been to several of the ports were done during Herod the great's time. Fortresses, stadiums, all kind of ornate stone carvings.

He was a big builder and financially doing alright, employed a lot of slave and low class labor. So So there's a very large disparity between rich and poor. The upper class was made mostly of the Jewish people. It was of the temple priest and the priestly aristocracy. We think of business people as being the top of the line.

There's most of the time in this time, it was the temple priest and the priestly aristocracy, and the middle class was comprised of traders, storekeepers, merchants, artisans, and craftsmen. The Pharisees were in the emerging middle class, I guess. Sages, scribes, teachers were usually a part of that, but they there were a lot of laborers required for those big projects. So a lot of folks postulate that Joseph was a builder, and Joseph the builder was working on some of the projects not in Sychar, not far from Nazareth for Herod the Great probably. Stone carrier slaves usually taken into slavery because of debt, and the unemployable people were in the lower class too and we see those throughout the New Testament.

So, the religious setting. The Jewish people, it's been four hundred years since they had an authoritative word from God. Now, in that middle time, there were people who are claiming it but it was not authoritative in any way. The Jewish people were seeking a Messiah, a deliverer, a savior who according to their understanding would bring them spiritual renewal and political freedom from centuries of foreign oppression and currently it's the Roman Empire. Are you with me so far?

We usually do this at Easter, not Christmas. Okay. So here we come into Luke, and Luke is a very good historian. We put it together from other places in Acts and other places in Paul's writings that Luke was a Gentile and a physician and he says that he is in his prologue giving a very very careful account of the life of Jesus and he starts. Now, John one one starts before Genesis one one.

I'll give him that but Luke starts on Earth. He starts before any of the rest of the gospels. He wanted to do a very detailed history because he is a documentary historian. So, here we go with Luke. In as much as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things that were accomplished among us here on earth.

Just as they were handed down to us by those who from the beginning were the eyewitnesses and servants of the word. It seemed fitting for me, Luke, as well, having investigated everything carefully from the very beginning to write out all of this for you in consecutive order. I really like Luke because if you just tell the story that he's tells, you get a really clear picture of what's going on. The theology emerges but the narrative is really really engaging. So, I wanted to write it out in consecutive order.

That's the way people tend to think past, present, and future. Most excellent Theophilus, someone who loves God but has come into the family of of following the way so that you, Theophilus, may know the exact truth about all the things that you have been taught. I want you to have confidence in what you've been taught. That's his whole point and so he starts from the beginning as he sees it right here in the days of Herod. That's Herod the Great.

King of Judea, there was a priest named Zacharias of the division of Abija. You hear how how meticulous he is with everything. He's given the details and he had a wife and she was from the daughters of Aaron and her name was Elizabeth and they were both righteous in the sight of God. They were both walking blamelessly in all of the commandments and requirements of the Lord and since we heard last week, what is it that lord requires of you people? What he requires of you is that you act justly, you love mercy, and you walk humbly with your God and that appears to be a picture of both Zacharias and Elizabeth but they had no child because Elizabeth was barren and they were both advanced in years and when I say that, does that immediately take you back to like Genesis immediately should take you back to Abraham and Sarah who were both advanced in years and the parallels of that story I think are intentional by God and by Luke as an accurate historian.

They're both advanced in years. Now, Abraham and Sarah had that promise from God and then decide to take things into their own way of thinking in their own hands and that caused a lot of trouble. Let's keep on going in the text. Now, it happened that while he was performing his priestly service, he was a priest and while he was performing his priestly service, before God in the appointed order of his division just like it should have been. According to the custom of the priestly office, he was chosen by lot to enter into the temple of the Lord and to burn incense.

That was his lot that time. He's only doing that by himself and the whole multitude of the people were in prayer outside at the hour of the incense offering. Now, an angel of the Lord appeared to him. Angel means messenger. Angolas means messenger.

Now, a messenger of the Lord appeared to him standing to the right of the altar of incense. Detail. Zechariah was troubled when he saw the angel and fear gripped him but the angel said as they always do, don't be afraid, Zechariah. For your prayer has been heard. Do you think he's still praying that prayer?

It was a prayer that it was heard many years before. Don't be afraid, Zechariah. For your prayer has been heard and your wife, Elizabeth, will bear you a son and you shall name him John and you will have joy and gladness and many will rejoice over his birth. You see the joy, joy, joy, joy, joy in the story. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord.

He will drink no wine or liquor. He'll be filled with the Holy Spirit while still in his mother's womb and he will turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord, their God. Think about this for a minute. I try to put you in the political, economic, historical, religious setting. They're going through the religious steps of the way the things that they do, the things that they're supposed to do and Zechariah is a priest is in there doing this service after four hundred years of not hearing from God but he's in there in all humility performing his service righteously.

He is one of the remnant as the minor prophets would say and while he's in there, he receives the first word of the Lord in four hundred years. Wow. And it's about his son. Wow. And it is he, your son, Zechariah, who will go as a forerunner before him in the spirit.

Before him, who? Him? The Messiah. In the spirit and power of Elijah. What's he gonna do?

Turn the hearts of the fathers back to their children and to the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous to make ready a people that are prepared for the Lord. Now, that's straight out of Malachi. Malachi said that would happen four hundred years before and then this angel is saying, it's coming to pass right now. I know it's hard to believe but this is what's going to happen. He knows these passages.

They knew these passages. A lot of us have had sort of a brain rot of shrinking attention span and we don't do as much wrote memorization as they did but they had these things in their mind. For Zechariah to hear this, these are echoes of the last authoritative word of God and the angel is saying to him, it's going to be your son. It is he, your son, who goes a forerunner and Zechariah said to the angel, how how how will I know this? For I'm an old man and my wife is advanced in her years and the angel answered and said to him, I am Gabriel who stands in the presence of God.

I think it's time to fear that angel again, right? I am Adrian. I am Gabriel who stands in the presence of God and was sent to speak to you, Zechariah, and to bring you this good news. And behold, you'll be silent, mute, unable to speak until the day when these things take place. Just because you don't believe it, doesn't mean it won't happen.

We've heard that before in Habakkuk two. Though it tarry, wait for it. Behold, you'll be silent and unable to speak until the day when these things take place because you didn't believe my words which will be fulfilled at their proper time. Meanwhile, all the people were waiting for Zechariah and they know how long it takes to burn incense and they're like wondering at his delay in the temple. Well, he's having a conversation with Gabriel but when he came out, he was unable to speak to them and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple and he repeatedly made signs to them and remained speechless.

Tanya and I, just a side note here for a second, we're missionaries to the deaf in Mexico for seven years building schools for deaf kids, and one of the one of the most joyous things that you will ever see in your life is a kid that comes in that recognizes other kids that are also deaf and that they have a language that they have never been able to communicate before and they have a home sign, home language, right? That they work out signs with their family but man, what a joyous thing it is when you're able to do it. Well, he's only been deaf this long and he's trying to communicate a vision of the temple that he's going to have a son. Can you imagine? He has, he doesn't have the signs for this.

He remains speechless. When the days of his priestly service were concluded, he went on back home and after these days, his wife, Elizabeth, became pregnant and she kept herself in seclusion for five months saying, this is the way the Lord has dealt with me in the days when he looked with favor upon me and to take away my disgrace among people. At the next part of the story is another visit of Gabriel. Now, in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee. So, they were in the hill country of Judea and serving in Jerusalem at the temple.

Now, that was Zechariah and Elizabeth. Now, in the six months angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee named Nazareth. That's her. To a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, the descendants of David and the virgin's name was Mary and coming in, Gabriel said to her, greetings favored one. The Lord is with you but she was very perplexed at this statement and she was pondering what kind of greeting this was.

And the angel said to her, don't be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God and behold, you will conceive in your womb and give birth to a son and you shall call his name Jesus and he will be great and he will be called the son of the most high and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom will have no end. But Mary said to the angel, how how will this be since I'm a virgin? And the angel answered and said to her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high will overshadow you. For that reason, also the holy child will be called the son of God and behold, even your relative Elizabeth herself has conceived a son in her old age and she who was called infertile is now in her sixth month. For behold, nothing is impossible with God.

Nothing will be impossible with God. And Mary said, behold, the Lord's bond servant. May it done may it be done to me according to your word, and the angel departed from her. And then Mary ran off to see Elizabeth. That's the story.

And now, at this time, Mary set out and she went in a hurry to the hill country, not of Texas but of Judah. And she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth and when Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leapt in her womb. There's joy there and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she cried out with a loud voice. So, it's so cool that it's been four hundred years of silence and then bam, the word comes to Zechariah and bam, the word comes to Mary and then bam, word comes out of Elizabeth's mouth. Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb and how has it happened to me that the mother of my Lord would come to me?

What clarity she received. For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leapt in my womb for joy, and blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord. And Mary, this is what we call the Magnificat. Beautiful. And it is pure scripture.

There's a lot of minor prophet stuff in here. I won't point them all out. Mary said, my soul exalts the Lord and my spirit has rejoiced in God my savior for he has had regard for my humble estate, for the humble estate of his bond servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed. For the mighty one has done great things for me and holy is his name.

Do you hear the humility in this? And his mercy is to generation after generation towards those who fear him. He has done mighty deeds with his army, scattered those who are proud in the thoughts of their hearts because God resists the proud and he gives grace to the humble. He's brought down rulers from their thrones and has exalted those who are humble. He's filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty handed.

He's given help to his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy Just as he spoke to our fathers, we heard that last week, to Abram and his descendants forever and Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned to her home. Now, the time had come for Elizabeth to give birth and she gave birth to a son and her neighbors and her relatives heard that the Lord had displayed his great mercy toward her and they were rejoicing with her. And it happened that on the eighth day, by tradition, that's the time to get circumcised and on the happened that on the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child and they were going to call him Zechariah after his father because that's a normal thing to do and yet his mother responded and said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, indeed. He shall be called John. Actually, they don't really listen to women in this day too too much, do they?

And so, they didn't. It's just the way it was and they were said to her, there's nobody around your melting. Can you hear em? You ever tell anybody what you're going name your baby and they immediately start going, why would you give me anything? Or they steal the name that happens to.

There's no one among your relatives who's called by this name and they made signs to his father. You you get to make the choice, Zechariah. They made signs to the father as to what he wanted him to be called and he asked for a tablet and he asked for a tablet and he wrote as follows. His name is John. Ain't that cool?

He might have been a little slow to catch up with Gabriel but he did listen to it. His name is John and they were all amazed and at once his mouth was open and his tongue was freed and he began speaking in praise of God and fear came on all those who lived around them. I love it when when angels show up, everybody's scared and it's fear not and then, when his tongue is freed, he is now the angel. He's now the messenger and when he starts sharing the message, it it scares everybody around him. The fear came on all those who lived around him and all these matters were being talked about about across the entire hill country of Judea and all who heard them kept this in mind saying, what then will this child turn out to be?

This is amazing for indeed the hand of the Lord was with him and his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit. Oh, man. Gabriel's announcing to Zechariah. Gabriel's announcing to Mary. Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit.

John the Baptist in the womb filled with the Holy Spirit and now his father is filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesies saying, blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he has visited us and accomplished redemption for his people. And he has raised up a horn of salvation. We've heard that in the minor prophets in the past few weeks. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David and just as it was spoken by the mouth of his holy prophets from ancient times. Salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant.

The oath which he swore to our father, Abraham. Does this sound like he's remembering all the stuff from the prophets too? Four hundred years of going through this, over this, and over this, and the humility of the remnant, and now filling with the spirit, they get to speak it back out, and you will give truth to Jacob and favor to Abraham which you swore our forefathers where we closed off last week to grant us that we being rescued from the hand of our enemies. That was also Micah five. He'll rescue us from the Assyrian when he invades our land.

Our enemies when he tramples on our territory. That we would be able to serve God without fear and holiness and righteousness before him all our days and you child, he's now prophesying over John the Baptist, you child also, you will be called the prophet of the most high for you will go on before the Lord to prepare his way straight quote from Malachi three. For you will go on before the Lord to prepare his ways to give his people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins and we see that when John starts preaching, when he comes on the scene in public and the other gospels, when we see him come on the scene, it's a message of repentance. Recognition of your sins, recognition of your need for salvation, and a turning away from your sins. Now, it's not the full gospel as Priscilla and Aquila teach Apollos.

It's not the full gospel that Jesus took it on himself and redemption is available in Christ and in Christ's mind. It's not only that but this was preparing the way. People recognizing the bad news is a real prerequisite for accepting the good news. Because why? Because of our righteous action and the fact that we know everything and we do everything just so.

No. Because of the tender mercy of our God. Because God is merciful with which the sunrise from on high will visit us to shine on those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death and to guide our feet into the way of peace. That's almost a quote from last week from Micah. He is going to give John the Baptist is going to give people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins.

He's going to talk about repentance and then Isaiah, I will one, that's a major prophet but I like this. You'll keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you. In this story, Zechariah was doing his priestly duty and his thoughts really were in all humility fixed on God. He had a little trouble believing but he was there. Mary was incredulous but she was there, humble before God.

Elizabeth too, John. It's pretty amazing. The last verse of Luke one is this. Now the child grew and was becoming strong in spirit. That sounds like an understatement for John the Baptist to me.

And he lived in the desert until the day of his public appearance to Israel. We get the public appearance to Israel stuff in the other gospels, but Luke goes straight on into now in those days, Luke two will go into this next week. A decree went out from Caesar Augustus that a census be taken. So it goes back to the political setting of the time, the economic setting of the time. The real world setting of the time and when God would burst forth on the scene.

I am amazed by how good God is and I'm amazed by how good God is. After that four hundred years of kind of going through all of that, I think of the words of so many of our hymns is long lay the world and sin and error pining for the day, right? And then, when it burst forth on the scene, we'll hear the angels sing next week but would you stand with me? I'm going invite Judy back up. We're going to close.