Archives for November 2014

When we see the many prophecies about Messiah perfectly fulfilled in Jesus we ought bow our knee to Him as Savior and Lord. Nevertheless, there are many who respond with doubt and skepticism. In this post I’ll show you how to reply to skeptic objections to Messianic prophecies being fulfilled in the person of Jesus.

1. Psychic writings have also predicted the future. What’s the big deal about the Bible? 

When it comes to predicting the future, the Bible stands alone for two reasons:

1. It’s specific, not vague. Prophecy outside the Bible is vague. For example I will read to you Nastrodamus’ supposed prediction of the rise of Hitler and Nazi Germany. He wrote “Followers of factions, great troubles are in store for the Messenger. A beast upon the theater prepares the scenical play. The inventor of that wicked feat will be famous. By factions the world will be confused and divided…Beasts mad with hunger will swim across rivers. Most of the army will be against the Lower Danube. The great one shall be dragged in an iron cage when the child brother will observe nothing.” See how vague that is!? In comparison, prophecy about Jesus is specific (he will be betrayed by a close friend, for 30 pieces of silver, and then, filled with remorse, his betrayer will return the money. Messiah will come from the line of Shem, the line of Abraham, the tribe of Judah, from the family of David.) Biblical prophecy is specific, not vague. Secondly…
2. It’s 100% accurate. There are some prophecies in the Bible that have not yet been fulfilled, but there’s not one that’s been wrong. In comparison, the late Jeane Dixon, one of the best-known American astrologers and psychics of the 20th century, was repeatedly wrong in her predictions. She predicted that China would plunge the world into war in 1958. Wrong. That World War III would begin in 1954. Wrong. That Castro would be banished from Cuba in 1970. Wrong. That Jacqueline Kennedy would not remarry after her husband’s assassination. Wrong! The very next day (after this prediction), she married Aristotle Onassis. A study of the prophecies made by psychics in 1975, including Jeane Dixon’s showed they were only accurate 6% of the time. Friends – that’s called guessing and occasionally being right – that’s not prophecy! Bible prophecy on the other hand has been 100% accurate.

2. Jesus intentionally maneuvered his life to fulfill the prophecies so that he would be mistaken for the Messiah. 

• For instance, Zechariah 9:9 predicted that the Messiah would ride into Jerusalem on a donkey. Skeptics claim that Jesus told his disciples to get him a donkey so that he could deceive the people into thinking he was the Messiah.
• But this theory is blown to smithereens when we realize that Jesus fulfilled many prophecies that he didn’t have any control over. For example, how could Jesus control…

1. The place of his birth
2. Who his ancestors were
3. How much money he would be betrayed for
4. How he would be put to death
5. How his bones wouldn’t be broken
6. How the soldiers would cast lots for his clothing and so on

• Jesus had no control over any of these things.

3. Jesus fulfilled these prophecies coincidentally. 

• They say that numerous people throughout history have probably fulfilled these prophecies. But people who say this obviously aren’t aware of just how difficult it is for one person to precisely fulfill all these prophecies.
• Author and science professor, Dr. Peter Stoner, worked with 600 students to come up with their best estimate of the mathematical probability of just 8 Old Testament prophecies being fulfilled in any one person living down to the present time. Stoner then calculated that the probability of anyone fulfilling all 8 would be one chance in a hundred million billion. That’s a figure with 17 zeroes behind it!
• Imagine the entire world covered with white tile that is 1 ½ inches square—every bit of dry land on the planet—with a gold star painted on the bottom of just one of the tiles. Then picture a person being allowed to wander for a lifetime around all 7 continents. He would be permitted to bend down only one time and pick up a single piece of tile. What are the odds it would be the one tile with the gold star on its reverse side? Once chance in a hundred million billion—the same as just 8 of the Old Testament prophecies coming true in any one person throughout history.
• With that said, remember that Jesus fulfilled not just 8, rather hundreds of Old Testament prophecies. If the chances are a hundred million billion for one person to fulfill just 8 prophecies, imagine what the chances are that someone would fulfill 50, 100 or 300 prophecies! The chances are so astronomical they are beyond comprehension!!

For a much better explanation of how to respond to skeptics, check out Lee Strobel’s The Case for Faith. Much of the material for this post has come from that book (as well as from The Case for Christ Student Edition also by Lee Strobel).

We read in Acts 2 that when Peter preached to the huge crowd that gathered on the Day of Pentecost he shared with them prophecies about how Messiah had to rise from the dead. The Bible says he talked with them for a long time (where he no doubt explained with example after example how Jesus fulfilled the prophesies written about Messiah). After he went through these prophecies showing how Jesus fulfilled each one, the Bible says that about three thousand people recognized Jesus as God’s promised Messiah, their Savior. From this example we see that Messianic prophecies help non-Christians recognize Jesus as God’s promised Messiah, the Savior of the world.

Let’s look at a small sampling of these prophecies (There are 191 specific Messianic prophecies. If you include the symbolic prophecies too there are over 300):

First let’s look at PROPHECIES ABOUT MESSIAH’S ANCESTRY.

• After a flood wiped out the vast majority of earth’s inhabitants God repopulated the earth through Noah’s three sons: Ham, Shem and Japheth. God told us that His Messiah would come through the line of Shem.
• Shem had kids, grandkids, great grandkids, etc. And of all Shem’s descendants God said that Messiah would come through a man named Abraham.
• Abraham had Isaac. Isaac had Jacob. And Jacob had 12 sons that became the twelve tribes of Israel. God said that Messiah would come through the tribe of Judah.
• And of the hundreds if not thousands of families in the tribe of Judah, God said Messiah would come through the family of David.
• God was specific: The Messiah would come through the line of Shem…through the line of Abraham…from the tribe of Judah…from the family of David.
• Now in Luke 3 you read this long genealogy about Jesus. If you’ve ever come across it you’ve probably skipped it thinking “This is worthless.” But actually, that’s there for the sole purpose of showing you that in fulfillment of biblical prophecy, Jesus descended from the line of Shem, then more specifically through the line of Abraham, then more specifically through the tribe of Judah, then even more specifically through the family of David.
• That’s why Luke 3 says that Jesus was the son of Shem (v.36), the son of Abraham (v.34) and the son of David (v.31).

Second, let’s look at PROPHECIES ABOUT MESSIAH’S BIRTH.

• God told us through his prophets that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem Ephrathah – that is, Bethlehem Judah.
• You see, each of the 12 tribes of Israel received a tribal allotment of land. Judah got land, Zebulun got land, Rueben got land, etc. Well, there was a Bethlehem in both Judah and in Zebulun, just as there’s a Springfield here in Massachusetts and a Springfield in Missouri.
• Not wanting to be vague, God said ahead of time that Messiah would come from the Bethlehem in Judah, not some other Bethlehem (like the one in Zebulun).
• Well as we know from history, Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the one in Judah. And what’s so impressive about this is that Jesus’ parents lived in Nazareth which was about 75 miles away from Bethlehem. The only reason Jesus was born in Bethlehem and not Nazareth was because Caesar Augustus commanded that a census be taken of the whole Roman empire and all the Jews had to head back to their tribal headquarters.
• Well since Joseph was from the tribe of Judah, he headed to Bethlehem in Judah, where the registration for the tribe of Judah was taking place.
• And when they arrived, Mary, a virgin, gave birth to Jesus fulfilling yet another prophecy about Messiah.

Third, let’s look at PROPHECIES ABOUT MESSIAH’S BETRAYAL. 

• God told us in advance that Messiah would be betrayed by a close friend. That this betrayer would be paid 30 pieces of silver and that after betraying Messiah, he would return the money with remorse for what he had done.
• As we know, Judas betrayed Jesus, was paid 30 pieces of silver to do it and then afterwards went to the chief priests and confessed: I have sinned. I have betrayed innocent blood. The chief priests (compassionate men they were) said: What’s that to us? That’s your problem. With great remorse, Judas threw the 30 pieces of silver on the Temple floor…then went out and hung himself for what he had done to Jesus.

Fourth, let’s look at PROPHECIES ABOUT MESSIAH’S CRUCIFIXION.

• God said Messiah would die with sinners. Jesus was crucified with a criminal to his right and  to his left.
• God said Messiah would be mocked by those who killed him. Those who crucified Jesus mockingly put a crown of thorns on his head and put a sign over his cross that said “King of the Jews.”
• God said Messiah would pray for the very people that killed him. On the cross Jesus prayed: Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.
• God said that additionally, Messiah’s clothes would be gambled for. During Jesus’ crucifixion the Roman soldiers gambled for Jesus’ clothes.

Finally, let’s look at PROPHECIES ABOUT MESSIAH’S BURIAL AND RESURRECTION.

• God said Messiah would be buried. Now the Romans typically disposed of the bodies of crucified criminals by feeding them to the wild dogs. But though Jesus was crucified as a criminal, he wasn’t fed to the dogs, rather was buried.
• God said that Messiah would be buried with the rich. Who buried Jesus? The Bible says it was a rich man named Joseph who was from Arimathea (who had become a disciple of Jesus).
• But God also said that no tomb would be able to hold the Messiah, for he would conquer death by rising from the grave. Consequently, when the disciples were at Jesus’ tomb wondering what happened to his body, two angels appeared and said to them: “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!

God’s intent has always been that through these prophecies we would recognize that Jesus is God’s promised Messiah.

Do you?

The book of Acts teaches us that generous giving makes us more like God. Acts reveals God as generous in nature:

1. He gives us life (Acts 17:25).
2. He gives us the Holy Spirit (Acts 15:8).
3. He gives us provision for all our needs (Acts 14:17).
4. He gives us eternal rewards in heaven (Acts 20:32).

So when we giving generously, we are reflecting the very character and nature of our generous heavenly Father (who so loved the world that he gave).

My daughter Ally recently had her first choir recital and since she looked so pretty I asked Kristin (my wife) to take a picture of us. After taking the picture my wife exclaimed “Oh my goodness Mike! Ally looks just like you!” My first thought was “Oh that poor little girl!” 😉 But my second thought was “It’s only natural for children to bear the family resemblance of their parents.”

We never more strongly bear the family resemblance as children of God than when we give.

The book of Acts teaches us that giving helps spread the gospel. Acts 2:45 says “They [the Christians in the Jerusalem church] sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.” What happened as a result? Acts 2:47 says, “…the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” Here’s the pattern in Acts (I say pattern because we see the same thing in Acts 4:34-35 and 5:14):

1. There’s a need in the church.
2. The people give generously to meet the need.
3. The gospel continues spreading and more people come to know Jesus.

The truth is, there’s a direct correlation between our giving and the spread of the gospel. In 2008 when New Day first started we baptized 0 people, supported 1 missions project and led 29 people to Jesus. Fast forward six years and six hundred people and (year to date) we’ve baptized 55 people, we currently support 27 missions projects and have led 234 people to Jesus. You know the difference between 2008 and 2014? About $700,000!!!

It takes money to do ministry and there’s no denying that generous giving helps spread the gospel.

Miracles played a role in the life and ministry of Christ. And miracles played a role in the life and ministry of the first century Christians. As they gave their lives in service to spreading the gospel, the miraculous marked their lives. We who live today should expect nothing less. While there are many things we can learn about miracles from the book of Acts, we’ll focus this week on two things we can do to set in motion the miraculous work of God in our lives. In this post we’ll focus on the second of the two (to read the first click here).

2. Put Yourself in the Right Context 

If one of your life goals is to catch a baseball at a Red Sox game, it would probably help to actually attend a game, right? In the same way, if you want to experience the miraculous activity of God in your life, it will help to put yourself in the context in which miracles take place.

Jesus gives us that context in Mark 16:15-18 where he said, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation…And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” Jesus teaches here that the miraculous happens in the context of using our lives to spread the gospel. As the Christians in the book of Acts used their lives to preach the good news to all creation, the miraculous marked their lives. Just as Jesus predicted…

1. They cast out demons. Acts 8:6-7 says “When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said. For with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many…”
2. They spoke in new tongues (languages). When the Holy Spirit came on the Day of Pentecost we read in Acts 2:4 that, “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” (cf Acts 10 & 19)
3. They weren’t harmed by poisonous snakes. In Acts 28 Paul was on his way to preach the gospel in Rome and while on the way he was shipwrecked on the island of Malta. While gathering fire wood a viper bit his hand. Even though vipers are one of the deadliest snakes in the world, Paul suffered no ill effect.
4. They healed the sick. While on Malta in Acts 28 Paul learned that the chief official’s father had fever and dysentary. Paul prayed for him and he was healed.

Jesus told his disciples that if they put themselves in the context of spreading the gospel, the miraculous would mark their lives and that’s exactly what happens in Acts. And if we want to see the things they saw, then we need to do the things they did.

We need to put ourselves in the right context, not just physically, but mentally too.

• Don’t think of yourself as a nurse that’s a Christian. Think of yourself as a missionary to the hospital at which you work.
• Don’t think of yourself as a stay at home mom that’s a Christian. Think of yourself as a missionary to your kids and neighbors.
• Don’t think of yourself as a teacher that’s a Christian. Think of yourself as a missionary to the school at which you work.

When we place ourselves in the right context physically (by using our lives to preach Jesus) and mentally (by thinking of ourselves as missionaries) we will set in motion the miraculous activity of God in our lives.