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Fulfilment
of the Promises by Reverend Murray Spackman, Vicar Sunday 30 November, 2003 Isaiah 33:14-16. Luke 21: 25-36. I have the belief that there are only two ways that we can look at history. 1.
Either history is just a succession of unrelated events –
beginning from nothing and ending in nothing -
, OR 2.
- we can view history a lot more significantly. - We can include God
in the equation of history – and chose to believe that God has a say in
what happens; - that God is
in control of history, and that at the appointed time, God will choose to
bring the strings from both ends of time and tie them together to complete
all things. The
first view of history, I believe, gives us nothing but uncertainty
and the despair of random and meaningless chaos.
The second view gives us a belief that somewhere and
somehow there is a plan and a purpose in everything around us.
Even disaster and tragedy must somehow, in this greater and
over-arching plan have a purpose and a place. It
is this second view that unfolds in the Bible,-
that there is order and
meaning. The opening
words – “In the beginning when God created the
universe” tells us of a Master mind and therefore a Master Plan
behind everything. That Mind and Plan – the Plan of Salvation - would be
unveiled in the course of time and eventually we would be able to see our
place within it. Today,
and for the next four weeks as we lead up to Christmas, we are going to
focus on the O.T. readings as they point us towards Jesus
Christ who, in Himself is the
focus of all history. All that God had to say about what He would do in
time and history is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. So, today I would like us to think about how Jesus is the Fulfilment
of all the Promises of God, and that, in Jesus, we find all of
history coming together.
I want to start by
asking a couple of questions. 1.
Why would it be important for Jesus to fulfil the promises of God.?
Well to cut a long story short
- God decided to make His Plan known to mankind in advance. And
furthermore – God would do this firstly through ordinary people – but
then it would be finally fulfilled in His Son, Jesus Christ.
If God hadn’t “drip fed” this Plan, and especially details
about whom this special visitor would be – then who would know whether
this person, when they eventually arrived,
was really the One from God, or not?
Anyone could stand up and claim that they are the Messiah! – and
many did! So in
order that His Messenger – or Messiah – would be recognised. God spoke
to various people – Kings, shepherds, prophets, priests, even ordinary
men and women, and told them something of what this person – the Special
One – the Messiah - would be like.
God went so far as to give explicit details of what this Messiah
would do. When all these
pieces of information – these prophecies – came together in one Person
– then this would be the proof that the real Messiah had arrived. All
that God had said about Him would in due course be fulfilled. So why would Jesus have to fulfil the promises
of God.? - simply,
in order to authenticate, his identity. 2.
What were some of those Promises which the Messiah would fulfil.?
Most
of the Promises which God made about this Messiah related both to his
personal qualities and to his public ministry.
“He would be eternal, he would be born of a Virgin, he would be
of the Tribe of David, born in Bethlehem, he would be a Righteous King who
would reign forever, He would exercise his ministry in the Power of the
Holy Spirit. The blind would see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, and the
dead be raised to life. There
would be no sin in him. He
would enter Jerusalem on a donkey; he would be betrayed by a friend for 30
pieces of silver; betrayed by his friends; silent before his accusers;
wounded and bruised; smitten and spat upon.
He would take the place of a sacrifice for the sins of the world;
he would suffer for the sins of others.
He would be crucified between two thieves, his hands and feet and
side would be pierced, but not a bone would be broken. He would intercede
for his persecutors, would be rejected by his own people; his garments
would be gambled over; he would suffer thirst and be forsaken, and be
buried in a rich mans tomb. He would be raised to life on the third day;
he would destroy death ; and through him all would be saved. He would be
exalted to the heaven to be seated at the Right hand of God, - and on the
last Day, all will see Him coming in glory as Victorious King.” This is but a brief summary of just some of the
words of Scripture from the Old Testament which would and did reveal the
Messiah – the one sent from God - as
none other than Jesus Christ. According
to one authoritative source, there are at least 332 distinct predictions
– pieces of the jig-saw, which were literally fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
The chances of those things all happening by accident or chance are
just too phenomenal to consider.
So what difference does this make for us today? 3.
The fulfilment of the Promises and Prophecies by Jesus gives us confidence
in Him. The
fulfilment of all these prophecies in Jesus Christ means that we can trust
Him, and who he is, with confidence. He is not some charlatan. Jesus is
not some self-promoted religious leader who has falsified his credentials
to make them look impressive. Many
of these prophecies which were fulfilled in Jesus, he had no way of
engineering. He had no say over how he would be put to death; of whether
his bones would be broken or not; whose tomb he would be laid in – to
name just a few! The
fulfilment in Jesus of all the Promises in the Old Testament mean we can
surely trust Him to be who he claims to be. – our Lord, our Saviour and
our King. And because
He will one day come again to receive us to Himself, we may look forward
to that time, even when all
else may look dark and despairing. We will see His face – and our hearts
will rejoice. Judy Imrie wrote this account of a major hurricane in the mid-west of the USA. She wrote:- “After
the devastating hurricane, all of the power had been out for the past
three days. It was hot, humid, and miserable during the day. But it was
frightening at night. Rumours were that there had been much looting.
Robberies had taken place because there was no electricity, no way to call
the police, no streetlights.
Thus, when, in the darkness, there was a pounding on our front
door, we were filled with great fear. Was this a robber?
Was this a looter trying to find out if the house was empty?
There
was no way to call anyone for help!
The knocking continued. We peered out the widow and tried to make
out the figures on the front porch. "Hey,"
- a voice called out to us.--
"We've got a big bag of ice for you, some fresh water
too!" We
made out the faces of our next-door neighbours, our friends who had come
to bring us some wonderful gifts. As
we peer into darkness in fear, it makes all the difference in the world
whose face we see. Is it Friend or foe? Advent means, that when we look over the darkened and storm filled horizon, we see the face of Jesus. We know that all the Promises of God are fulfilled in Him. We see the face of a Friend - and - in the end, that makes all the difference. |
