Saturday – December 2017
By Pastor John Snyder
House of the Lord Fellowship
The prophet Isaiah ministered during the years 740 to 697 B.C. He prophesied and foretold some amazing things concerning the Jesus Christ the Messiah and what would happen to Him 700 years before Jesus was born. He said this in the Old Testament of the Bible:
Isaiah 7:14
The Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’).
Isaiah 8:14
He will be as a sanctuary, but a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, as a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Isaiah 9:6
For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders.
And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 49:6
[God] says, I will make you a light to the Gentiles, and you will bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.
Isaiah 50:6
I offered my back to those who beat me and my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard.
I did not hide my face from mockery and spitting.
Isaiah 50:3-6
He was despised and rejected—a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.
2,000 years ago, all of the prophecies by Isaiah, along with over 300 prophecies about Jesus in the Old Testament, were fulfilled in Jesus Christ. These other prophets included Moses, Jeremiah, Daniel, Micah, Zachariah, David, Malachi, Amos, Hosea, Zephaniah, and Ezekiel. The prophecies were given over a 1,000 year period, and they describe in vivid detail with stunning accuracy the birth of Jesus, His life, His ministry, His death upon a cross, His teachings, and His resurrection, all no less than 400 years before His arrival on Earth. Jesus came to be the Savior of the world. He came to die for our sins so that we could be could be reconciled to God and declared to be righteous in His sight. Jesus came so we could be saved and receive the promise of eternal life. Jesus came to establish His kingdom upon the earth. As we remember His birth and celebrate His coming this Christmas season, let us receive Him as our personal Savior and King by believing what the prophets spoke long ago and surrendering our lives to Jesus.
John 3:16
For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
An angel said in Luke 2:11: For there is born to you this day [Christmas Day] in the city of David [Bethlehem] a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!
