April 7, 2019
Morning Service

We are two short weeks from another glorious Easter in which we celebrate one of the foundations of our faith; the resurrection of Jesus.  This story however was written before the foundation of the world.  It is a love story between God and His creation and the lengths He goes to make that relationship possible.  It is a story of epic magnitude that includes every person that has every lived on this planet.  The amazing thing is that though the story is so vast, yet it includes you personally.  You, as a human having been created and crafted beautifully and wonderfully unique, are a central figure in this story God wrote before the planet existed.  This is your story of how God paved a way for you to have a close, personal, and intimate relationship with Him through His Son Jesus Christ.  It is your story, but it is also my story and in fact it is our story of how “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever (which includes everyone but specifically you) believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”  In reality our story is His story, it truly is all about Him and we simply play a part in it so I include Christ as part of our story.  Let’s now look back before Jesus was even born in the manger and begin to see the plan that God laid out for this love story; our story.

 Isa 1:18  "Come now, and let us reason together," Says the LORD, "Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool.

Let us reason together that all this was not just events that happened by chance, but this is a well devised and executed plan set into motion by God and carried out through His Son.  It is about us and the God who created each of us because He loved us and desired a relationship with us.  It is about Jesus paying for the price of our sins that separate us from our Father.

 

Psalms 102:25-28  Of old You laid the foundation of the earth, And the heavens are the work of Your hands.  (26)  They will perish, but You will endure; Yes, they will all grow old like a garment; Like a cloak You will change them, And they will be changed.  (27)  But You are the same, And Your years will have no end.  (28)  The children of Your servants will continue, And their descendants will be established before You."

Here David writes that the world began by the work of God’s hands and it is He and His children that their “years will have no end.”  He indeed is the beginning and the end.

 

Rev 1:8  "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End," says the Lord, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."

            God has created all that we see around us and will end this story just like He said it would end; we win!  This Easter season and the empty tomb are guarantees that our story ends in victory, because our story is part of His story.  Let’s look back now at even more specific prophesies that point to that fact.

 

Isa 7:14  Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel(God with us).

            As we discussed in our study of I John we know this is a key foundational point in our faith that Jesus was fully God and fully man.  This was foretold hundreds of years before Jesus’ birth and is just one of many that foretold several other facts that all were fulfilled just as they were spoken.  It was prophesied that Jesus would be a descendant of David, be born in Bethlehem, come out of Egypt, and be preceded by one who would “prepare the way of the Lord” and each and every one came true just as they were spoken.  His ministry began at His baptism and God spoke just as the Psalmist prophesied.

 

Psa 2:7  "I will declare the decree: The LORD has said to Me, 'You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.

Mat 3:17  And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

            This began a three-year period in which Jesus spoke the Word of God and laid out the gospel message and His mission which was written hundreds of years earlier by Isaiah the prophet and He read out loud in the temple. (Luke 4:18-19)

 

Isa 61:1-2  "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, Because the LORD has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;  (2)  To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn,

            It is us that He came to preach to.  We are the brokenhearted and we are the ones who are held captive by our sins, but He has set us free!  It is part of our story that was written before the sun and moon were put in their places.  I now want to focus more on a very specific prophecy that deals with the suffering that was foretold by Isaiah that we will watch take place in the next two weeks as we follow the path Jesus walked to the cross.  Listen as the graphic details that are prophesied hundreds of years before all come true in Jesus’ lifetime.  This is a big part of our story.  Jesus had to suffer all these things to grant us the hope of victory and our sins forgiven.  He did this for you, not out of duty but because He loves you this much!  Jesus Christ the sinless Son of God willingly endured all this suffering because He loves you.  Jesus Himself told His disciples that this was going to happen and it did.  This is His story, but it is our story as well.

 

Isaiah 53

 

Joh 15:13  Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.

 

Romans 5:8  But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

 

Romans 8:31-32  What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?  (32)  He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

 

His love for us is a big part of our story, but it is His whole story.  What we do with it is the key.  It is difficult to ignore a love like this.

 

Heavenly Father, thank You for loving us and setting in motion this wonderful perfect plan of salvation.  Please make this real to us and reveal your love to us in the coming weeks.