In this Christmas message Pastor Clark takes us all the way back to the first gospel promise – and first Messianic prophecy – recorded in Scripture, which predicted the advent of a Redeemer. A platitude of prophecies would follow – all of which Jesus fulfilled! He is the Messiah!

<p>In this Christmas message Pastor Clark takes us all the way back to the first gospel promise – and first Messianic prophecy – recorded in Scripture, which predicted the advent of a Redeemer. A platitude of prophecies would follow – all of which Jesus fulfilled! He is the Messiah!</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Dalton SDA Church

The Characteristics and Titles of Jesus

Chester Clark

Jesus: The Creator

Jesus: Prince of Peace

Jesus: The Promise Keeper

Jesus: The Good Shepherd

Jesus: Older Brother

Jesus: Wonderful, Counselor

Jesus: The Truth

Jesus: Light of the World

Jesus: The Morning Star

Jesus: One of Them

Jesus: Promised Seed

Jesus: One of Us

Has anyone here ever been a victim of identity theft?

I remember the first time I got a call from a detective, I didn't even realize that my credit card number had been stolen.

It seems as though there was somebody in the St.

Louis airport, because that's the only time I'd been through St.

Louis, that had worked in a vendor perhaps, and it had been UPS who had alerted the authorities to the many packages coming to the same address with many different names.

And you know the story about having to get a new card and all of those things.

Today there are many people who experience identity theft, but perhaps 1 of the most impersonated of all time was the Messiah.

Many many people claim to be the Messiah.

In Jesus' time there had already been quite a few people who claimed to be the Messiah.

Many after would also claim to be the Messiah.

I remember I was walking in New York City, Manhattan, some years ago, walking down the street and there was a gentleman there giving out brochures.

I didn't realize that he was only giving them to Jews.

I suppose it was the Jewish version maybe of the shut door theory if you know Adventist history.

Only Jews were worthy of this information that he was sharing and so as he was handing these brochures out for some reason I must have looked like a Jew.

And I'm walking down the sidewalk with this brochure and it's got pictures and information about this certain rabbi in Los Angeles who was believed to be the Messiah.

And I was quite curious, I was quite interested, so I went back to talk to him, and as soon as I asked my first question, he realized the obvious, that I wasn't a Jew, in fact, and he tried to get the brochure back.

Many people have claimed to be the Messiah.

In fact, it is thought by some scholars that Barabbas himself, I think we've talked about that here before, the name Barabbas, the son of the father doesn't really make much sense.

And it's thought by many scholars that Barabbas himself was someone who was claiming to be the Messiah.

And the Jews made a decision between this Barabbas and Jesus.

And so, today we are going to take a moment to look at the evidence for Jesus as the Messiah.

Our scripture today tells us that when the fullness of time was come God sent forth His Son made of a woman made under the law that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

Becoming sons and daughters of Christ, of God, evidently is dependent upon Jesus' incarnation and Jesus' divinity, Jesus coming as the Scriptures had said.

Today we're going to look at Jesus as the promised seed.

Father, we just thank you that you've given us evidence that we can turn to, evidence to believe that you have already sent the Messiah, the scent of God, that you have already sent 1 to redeem us and to adopt us and that we might be transformed by His power.

Today Father, I want to pray that you would bless us as we open your word.

We turn all the way back to the beginning of our Bibles in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15.

We call this in a theological term, we call it the Proto-Evangelium.

This simply means the first gospel presentation.

The promise here in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15 is given, and I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed, he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.

Now, notice this can get a little confusing with the pronouns unless you remember that Jesus or God was here speaking to the serpent, right?

And he's speaking to the serpent, probably 1 of the few promises that God ever gave to Lucifer after his fall, after he became Satan.

And the promise is that his head's gonna be crushed.

You don't wanna get that kind of a promise from God, do you?

But this is a promise that God gives to Lucifer.

He says, I will put enmity or a hatred, I will put strife between you, the serpent, and the woman, that's Eve, who he attempted to fall, to sin.

I will put this enmity between you 2 and between your seed and her seed.

Now, we might think that seed is talking about plural, all the descendants of the woman and all, well, the descendants of Lucifer in essence.

Lucifer doesn't have any children, but he has those who follow in his ways who are his spiritual descendants, right?

Remember that from our series on Abraham?

How the works of your father you will do?

So Satan has his own children and there's enmity.

Listen friends, make no mistake about it.

There is an enmity between the children of God and the children of the world.

If the church becomes too friendly with the world, it's usually going to end up no longer being the children of God.

The problem is that enmity, that difference, that peculiarity, even those visible reminders that we are different from the world around us are given to us by God for our protection.

It says, I'll put enmity between your seed and her seed, but notice it's not just plural seed, it's talking also about the singular seed, as the word seed can be both singular and plural, and between your seed and her seed, he, in the singular, shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel, the seed of the woman.

It's given all the way back there in Genesis chapter 3.

The very first day that sin entered the human experience, the promise of the seed also came.

Now I can imagine, Adam and Eve's life has been absolutely turned upside down.

I can only imagine, if any of you have ever done something that you regret, you know a little bit what Adam and Eve felt like as they watched their perfect world transformed into a horror film.

They experienced for the first time anger and envy and pride and jealousy.

They had their first marital dispute on the very same day that Jesus, God found them hiding in the trees of the garden.

Imagine the transformation from perfect Eden of bliss where everything was only love and happiness to Now a chill that permeated the air.

Adam and Eve could only hope that this promise would be fulfilled post haste.

That this promise would be fulfilled in a very short order, rapidly.

They must have wished that very soon that seed would come.

I mean, after all, it was promised, the seed of the woman, and he shall bruise the head of the serpent.

And so Adam and Eve must have prayed for and longed for that seed to come.

The Bible records in Genesis chapter 4 and verse 1, Adam knew his wife Eve's wife, she conceived him, bore Cain and she said, this is the new King James, I have acquired a man from the Lord.

Now most of the translations render this passage in this manner.

But the reality is that this passage can be translated in another way that also some scholars believe that it should be rendered.

She said, I have given birth to a male child, the Lord, in the International Standard Version.

God's Word translation says, I have gotten the man that the Lord promised.

And Ellen White in The Desire of Ages, she in fact, she says that When Adam and Eve had their first son, they hoped, fondly hoped that this would be the world's redeemer.

Can you imagine the disappointment when Cain instead became the world's first murderer and his victim being his own brother.

But the fact is that the seed of the woman was promised, was it not?

It was promised, it was right there, they heard it with their own ears, and this promise was kept alive generation after generation after generation.

Many were able to look forward to the promise of the seed coming because they remembered the promise that had been given to Adam and Eve, our first parents, the promise of the seed.

He says, I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you, and in you shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

He says it again in Genesis 22 and verse 18, in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed my voice.

And so Abraham was a recipient of this promise as well.

Eve would have the promise of her seed being the deliverer.

Abraham would have the promise of his seed being the deliverer.

And it was no mystery that so many of the of the women, the mothers of Israel, were anxious to have children because they all hoped, they all hoped that they would be, they would be the progenitor, the mother of the 1 promised to Eve, to Abraham.

Those promises were repeated, not only to Abraham, but to Isaac and to Jacob and those promises continued to be repeated.

So far we've already seen that the Messiah would be born of a woman.

Of course, in history we can look back and we know that Jesus was made flesh through an incarnation in the womb.

But listen, that's only obvious to us because it's how it happened.

That's how it was promised to happen, right?

God could have come to this earth to die for us in any way he chose.

There's nothing that said he had to be incarnate, except that he wanted to be our example as well.

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Series

The Characteristics and Titles of Jesus

Jesus: Promised Seed

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

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What to do at Midnight? Serving God in Times of Persecution

53m

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41m

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1h 4m

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03 Cross the Jordan: Joshua

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Hebrews 11- Faith

22 The Faith of Samuel

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