Laurelton Park Baptist Church

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Pastor Alex Perednia ~ Sunday, December 21, 2014

#3FORETOLD~ Long Expected One(Micah 5:2; Luke 2:11-12)

In the Hebrew Bible, God foretoldthe coming and mission of Jesus Christ. This Christmas, we’ll examine how God foretold Christ’s first coming; at Easter, we’ll explore some additional passages that foretold Christ’s death, resurrection and second coming.

“Come thou long expected Jesus…” expresses the hope of the coming of Jesus. Before Christmas, God foretold the birth-place and identity of a long expected One, whose coming 700 years later we celebrate this Christmas.

God foretold the birth-PLACE_____ of the long expected One.

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come…”(Micah 5:2a; cf. Matt 2:5, 6; John 7:24)

An insignificant place:This town of David already had a reputation as a little town with a big impact! (1 Samuel 16:1, 7) This is God’spreferred way of operating.(1 Corinthians 1:27-29)

A significant name:Bedlam (Luke 2:4, 11; Matt 2:16) or Bethlehem (house of bread –John 6:35)?

God foretold the IDENTITY_____of the long expected One.

“…whose origins are of old, from ancient times…” (Micah 5:2c; cf. Ps 90:2; Isa 9:6; John 1:1-2, 14)

“…the Christmas miracle… is the most stupendous and astonishing wonder which could ever engross the human mind--that the eternal, infinite Creator of the universe should enter our human life, and assume our human nature, by being born as a baby of a human mother!”(J. Sidlow Baxter)

God foretold the TIMING______of the long expected One.

“…Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor bears a son and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites.”(Micah 5:3; cf. 2 Peter 3:8; Dan 9:24-27; Galatians 4:4)

God foretold the MISSION____of the long expected One.

“…one who will be ruler over Israel…He will stand and shepherd his flock…He will be our peace…”(Micah 5:2b, 4, 5)

In the Past: Jesus claimed…(John 8:51; 10:11; 18:36; 14:27; Matt 26:64) Do I believe the claims of Christ?(Romans 10:9-10)

In the Present: Jesus is…(Hebrews 1:3b; Romans 5:1; Ephesians2:14-15; 1:22) Do I submit to the peace and reign of Christ?(Colossians 3:15)

In the Future: Jesus will… (Rev. 19:11, 16) Do I long for His coming? (2 Tim 4:8)

God foretold that the long expected One from Bethlehemwould be “…born a child and yet a King, born to reign in us forever…”

Wednesday 12/24/14 (2PM & 7PM)

#3 FORETOLD

THERE WILL NOCONNECTION GROUPS ON 12/24 OR 12/31.

You can join us for a Christmas Eve Candlelight service on December 24th at 7PM.

We’ll resume our groups on Wednesday January 7th.

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INTRODUCTION

SLIDEKidz Church Dismissal

SLIDEPrayer– Diane Hallock

SLIDELike me, do you find it hard to wait?

(Wait… 15 seconds… before saying…)

Was it hard for you to wait those LOOOONG 15 seconds for me to say something?
SLIDEHave you ever waited in a restaurantwith NO serviceat your table? Did you say something or walk out? These people in the picture wrote a note in the ketchup on their table, “We waited 30 min, No service.”
SLIDEAre you finding it hard to wait for that Christmas gift that you have been long-expecting under the Tree? You’ve been counting down and don’t know if you can last another 4 days.

SLIDEHave you ever found it hard to wait for the arrival of someone you’ve been long-expecting, like a family member to come into town, a baby to be born or even a soldier to come home from the war-front? Perhaps you can identify with this child pictured holding a sign: “I’ve waited 290 days for a hug from my Dad. Welcome home Dad!”

SLIDEIf you think all of these times of waiting are hard, then perhaps you have a small taste of how it must have felt for the people of Israel whowaited over 700 years for the Messiah. As you listen to this video presentation of the song “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus…” see how many of the Bible stories you can identify and see how the progression of the paintings depict the unfolding of this hopeas God’s people waited for the LONG EXPECTED ONE.

SLIDESermonSpice.com:Come Thou Long Expected Jesus

SLIDE“Come thou long expected Jesus…” expresses the hope of the coming of Jesus. Did you know thatGod has FORETOLD the coming of the baby of Bethlehem? Way before Christmas, God foretold the birth-place and identity of a long expected One, whose coming 700 years later we celebrate this Christmas. During this Christmas sermon series, we are looking at some of the ways that God has FORETOLD many aspects of the Messiah’s birth – both his family lineage, the nature, the placeand the timingof his birth. (By the way, around Easter, we’ll also come back to this series and look at how God also FORETOLD various aspects of Jesus’ ministry, death and resurrection. And God has even FORETOLD the second coming of the Messiah.)

PREACHING OUTLINE

Today, we will be looking at how God foretold the birth-place and mission of this Long Expected One. This promise is found in Micah 5.

SLIDE“[2] But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah,out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times. SLIDE[3] Therefore Israel will be abandoneduntil the time when she who is in labor bears a son,and the rest of his brothers returnto join the Israelites. SLIDE[4] He will stand and shepherd his flockin the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. [5] And he will be our peace…”(Micah 5:2-5a)

SLIDE After 700 years of waiting, the Long Expected One arrived as described by Luke 2:11-12:

[11] Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. [12] This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”(Luke 2:11-12)

SLIDEGod foretold the birth-PLACE__ of the long expected One.

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come…” (Micah 5:2a;

The NT writers give internal evidence (as in Matt 2:5, 6; John 7:24) that the people of Jesus’ time believed the prophecy of Micah and expected the messiah to be born in Bethlehem.

Why Bethlehem? It was a small town. Not even large enough to get mention in the book of Joshua with all the other cities when the land divisions were named.

An insignificant place: This town of David already had a reputation as a little town with a big impact!

We see in 1 Samuel 16 that God sent Samuel to the town of Jesse, to Bethlehem to anoint the next king of Israel. All of Jesse’s sons were paraded before Samuel but God did not choose the first-born or the strongest. No, God chose the youngest who was tending sheep in the field. But, despite what everyone else thought, God chose David.

This is God’s preferred way of operating.

1 Corinthians 1:27-29: But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. [28] God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, [29] so that no one may boast before him.

As insignificant as the town was… It had…

A significant name:

The name “Bethlehem” means“house of bread”

But, did you know that the word Bedlam derives from Bethlehem? (I learn this in a seminar by Clarence Johnson at a FOI seminar last year. He explained that:

The English word “Bedlam” derives from the word “Bethlehem”

In many ways, Clarence Johnson is right, Bedlam (rather than “house of bread”) describes the very first Christmas. (Luke 2:4, 11; Matt 2:16)

And yet, despite all the bedlam, God’s promise comes to us in Bethlehem (the house of bread)

John 6:35: Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. Despite the bedlam, Jesus promises to be your Bread of Life.

SLIDEGod foretold the IDENTITY_ of the long expected One.

“…whose origins are of old, from ancient times…” (Micah 5:2c)

“The Hebrew words for “from long ago, from the days of eternity” are the strongest Hebrew words ever used for eternity past. They are used of God the Father in Psalm 90:2.”[1]

“…this Ruler was not a recent creation, for even though He would be born in Bethlehem, He had existed from eternity. When the Hebrew word for “everlasting,” ˓ôlam, is used in connection with God, it can only mean “from eternity on” (cf. Pss. 25:6; 90:2). That can be its only meaning here if the Ruler is none other than the Son of God, the Messiah.[2]

Isa 9:6

John 1:1-2, 14)

SLIDEGod foretold the TIMING____of the long expected One.

“…Israel will be abandoned untilthe time when she who is in labor bears a son and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites.”(Micah 5:3; cf. 2 Peter 3:8; Dan 9:24-27; Galatians 4:4)

Micah lets the people know that there would be a DELAY until this baby would be born. Little did the people know HOW long that delay would last. In between Micah’s promise and the fulfillment would be a CAPTIVITIES for the northern kingdom in Assyria and the southern kingdom in Babylon. Then, after a RETURN, they would rebuild the temple and the city and there would be 400 years of absolute silence.

Dell Tackett illustrates“the 400-years of silence prior to the coming of Jesus [by comparing it] to the Apollo 13 incident.

On the evening of April 13, when the crew was 200,000 miles from Earth and closing in on the moon, mission controller Sy Liebergot saw a low-pressure warning signal on a hydrogen tank in Odyssey. Alarm lights lit up in Odyssey and in Mission Control as oxygen pressure fell and power disappeared. The crew notified Mission Control, with, "Houston, we've had a problem."

For re-entry to the earth's atmosphere, there would be a blackout period, lasting a few minutes. During the silence, Mission Control petitioned, "Apollo 13, this is Houston, do you read me?"

This is how Hollywood captured this 4 minute wait that seemed like 400 years.

SLIDEYoutube.com: Apollo 13 Re-ntry

SLIDETackett comments:

The Apollo 13 blackout lasted only a few minutes. Imagine 400-years of silence. Then the silence was broken. At the right time, God brought forth his Son, born of a woman and fulfilled all the promises and the prophesies.”

[Del Tackett, "Del Tackett Apollo 13 and Jesus," YouTube; submitted by Van Morris, Mt. Washington, Kentucky ~

SLIDEGod foretold the MISSION__of the long expected One.

“…one who will be ruler over Israel…He will stand and shepherd his flock…He will be our peace…” (Micah 5:2b, 4-5)

In September of 1940, Witold Pilecki, a Polish army captain, did the unthinkable—he snuck into Auschwitz. That's right,intoAuschwitz. Pilecki knew that something was terribly wrong with the concentration camp and as a committed (Roman Catholic) Christian and a Polish patriot he couldn't sit by and watch. He wanted to get information on the horrors of Auschwitz, but he knew he could only do that from the inside.

So his superiors approved a daring plan. They provided a false identity card with a Jewish name, and then Pilecki allowed the Germans to arrest him during a routine Warsaw street roundup. Pilecki was sent to Auschwitz and assigned inmate number 4859. Pilecki, a husband and father of two, later said, "I bade farewell to everything I had known on this earth." He became just like any other prisoner—despised, beaten, and threatened with death. From inside the camp he wrote, "The game I was now playing at Auschwitz was dangerous …. In fact, I had gone far beyond what people in the real world would consider dangerous."

But beginning in 1941, prisoner number 4859 started working on his dangerous mission. He organized the inmates into resistance units, boosting morale and documenting the war crimes. Pilecki used couriers to smuggle out detailed reports on the atrocities. By 1942, he had also helped organize a secret radio station using scrap parts. The information he supplied from inside the camp provided Western allies with key intelligence information about Auschwitz.

In the spring of 1943, Pilecki joined the camp bakery where he was able to overpower a guard and escape. Once free, he finished his report, estimating that around 2 million souls had been killed at Auschwitz. When the reports reached London, officials thought he was exaggerating. Of course today we know he was right.

Here's how a contemporary Jewish journal summarized Pilecki's life: "Once he set his mind to the good, he never wavered, never stopped. He crossed the great human divide that separates knowing the right thing from doing the right thing."

Matt Woodley, managing editor, PreachingToday.com; sources: Rob Eshman, "The man who snuck into Auschwitz,"JewishJournal.com(12-5-12); Captain Witold Pileck,The Auschwitz Volunteer(Aquila Polonica, 2012)

SLIDECONCLUSION

God foretold that the long expected One from Bethlehem would be “…born a child and yet a King, born to reign in us forever…”

SLIDE In the Past: Jesus claimed… (John 8:51; 10:11; 18:36; 14:27; Matt 26:64) Do I believe the claims of Christ? (Romans 10:9-10)

SLIDE In the Present: Jesus is… (Hebrews 1:3b; Romans 5:1; Ephesians 2:14-15; 1:22) Do I submit to the peace and reign of Christ? (Colossians 3:15)

SLIDE In the Future: Jesus will… (Rev. 19:11, 16) Do I long for His coming? (2 Tim 4:8)

[1] Fruchtenbaum, A. G. (1998). Messianic Christology: a study of Old Testament prophecy concerning the first coming of the Messiah (p. 64). Tustin, CA: Ariel Ministries.

[2] Kaiser, W. C., & Ogilvie, L. J. (1992). Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi (Vol. 23, p. 64). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.