One of the greatest validating proofs of Christianity is the harmonization of contradictory paradoxical prophecies in the Old Testament that find total resolution in Jesus Christ.
It could never be counterfeit. And He is who He said He was, the Christ of God, the Savior of the world. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.
I'm your host, Phil Johnson. You've probably known the Christmas story since you were little, maybe because of a school Christmas pageant you were in or because you went to church each year at Christmas, hearing time and again the account of Jesus' birth. Of course, it could be you come from a Christian background and you learned in detail exactly what the Bible teaches about the birth of Christ. But even if you think you know everything there is to know about the Christmas story, you might be surprised by what you learned today. John MacArthur will turn your attention to the mysterious Jesus.
That's the title of today's lesson. It's part of John's study titled, The Jesus of Christmas. And now here's John with the lesson. Let's meet the mysterious Jesus of the Old Testament. To give you the idea that we want to have as we flow through these thoughts, the reason there is mystery attached to Jesus Christ in the Old Testament is because of the apparent conflict in regard to prophecies. For example, in one place He is said to be the coming King. In another place He is seen as a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. In one place He is seen with all of the saints. In another place He is presented as lonely. In one place He is presented as worshiped and adored and honored and revered.
In another place He is lonely and rejected. And how can it be? How can all of these confusing, contradictory things ever come to pass? Little wonder that John was confused. Little wonder the disciples were mystified. Little wonder the people couldn't make up their mind about who this man really was. Mystery.
But you and I have a privilege. We are able to understand what they couldn't understand. We are able to see resolved what they could never imagine could even be resolved. The mysteries.
Let's see if we can't get some help. Micah chapter 5. Back up about a half a dozen books from the end of the Old Testament and you'll find Micah. And Micah tells us where the Messiah would be born.
It's marvelous. Verse 2 of Micah 5. But thou Bethlehem, Bethlehem, Ephrata, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, though you're really a very insignificant village, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel. The ruler is coming from you.
What ruler? Oh, this is marvelous. The one whose goings forth have been from of old from everlasting. Now this is incredible. Here you're back to the God-man paradox.
Micah must have been doing 360s on his tiptoes when he heard this. How in the world can you have a child born in Bethlehem who's been around since eternity passed? But the eternal one will be born in this obscure inconsequential village of Bethlehem that I daresay would not have been on the map except for this one great event. Bethlehem. You say, well that's easy. We all know that came to pass.
That's right. But what is so mystifying about it is that you go back to Hosea chapter 11 and Israel is presented here and bound up in the loins of the nation was the Messiah that would come from that nation. And as Israel was truly a son of God, so was Jesus Christ the Son and so the comparison is obvious.
In Hosea 11, when Israel was a child, then I loved him and called my son out of Egypt. Now that has very profound messianic implications that as Israel was called out of Egypt in her infancy, so will the Messiah. That is the way the New Testament writers see the passage. And we don't know all that they may have understood at that point in time, but it says here that the son would be called out of Egypt. So in one prophecy he's coming to Bethlehem and another one is Egypt. And if that isn't bad enough, look at Isaiah chapter 11. And this one tells us something yet about him. It says there shall come forth a shoot or a sprout out of the stem of Jesse, a branch growing out of his roots.
Now here you have shoot, hoter, branch, neser. And this is a messianic prediction again. Verse 2, the Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him and then it describes the kingdom and the millennium and so forth that he'll bring. So it says that when he comes, he will be a neser, a sprout.
The first significance of this prophecy is the title of a branch given to Messiah. But the second one, and the one that apparently the New Testament writer sees in this as well and we can assume others saw it, suggests that Jesus would be neser and that may be suggesting his boyhood residence of nesereth, so that he is a sprout from sprout town. So on the one hand you have Bethlehem and then you have Egypt and then you have sprout town, nesereth.
How can he be all these things? And you can understand the prophet of old searching the Scripture diligently wondering, where is he going to be coming from? Is it Bethlehem? Is it nesereth?
Is it Egypt? And the complexity of all of these prophecies make it impossible that they should be counterfeited. Go to Matthew chapter 2, and again I say, Blessed are your eyes, for they see in your ears, for they hear what those could not see or hear. Verse 1 of Matthew 2, Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, there's the first one. Verse 5, And they said unto him in Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet and thou, Bethlehem in the land of Judah art not the least among the princes of Judah, for out of these shall come a governor that shall rule my people Israel. And there, of course, is an allusion to the very prophecy in Micah. Bethlehem is the place and Bethlehem was the place.
But there's more. Look at verse 13, And when they were departed, behold, an angel of the Lord approached to Joseph in appearance, in a dream, saying, Arise and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word, for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. Jesus became a refugee.
Go to Egypt. When he rose, took the young child and his mother by night and departed into Egypt, and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son. And he fulfills that element of prophecy. He went to Egypt. And then the third part, verse 23, And he came and dwelled in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, He shall be called a sprout, a root, a branch, a Nazarene.
Someone despised, nothing very spectacular. Why didn't he settle in Judah? Why didn't he settle in Jerusalem? Why Nazareth? Because that's what the prophet said. And in a fit of anger, shortly before his death, King Herod had changed his will, which he had done very often, and he put Archelaus, who was the worst of his living sons, to rule in Judea, in the place of Antipas, who was assigned to Galilea and Perea.
That was one good reason for going up there. Joseph was afraid to settle under Archelaus, because Archelaus once killed 3,000 Jews at Jerusalem. He was cruel beyond belief, and he was finally, by the way, disposed of and replaced by the Romans themselves. Well, if Herod hadn't changed his will, maybe Jesus never would have gone to Nazareth. But he did, and Jesus fulfilled every prophecy. How could one person be all these things?
He is. Let me give you another prophecy, I think a very interesting one. Turn to Jeremiah chapter 22, and I want you to notice a further conflict, a mystery, difficult to understand, looking at the Old Testament.
In Jeremiah 22, verse 29, O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord. God's going to speak, and He speaks, and He's speaking to Jeconiah, Jeconiah, the king. Write this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his day, for no man of his seed shall prosper sitting upon the throne of David and ruling anymore in Judah.
Now, the messianic line from Judah to David flows from David to Jeconiah, sometimes called Coniah, and he was evil, unfaithful, and God cursed him. And he said, write the man childless. Now, that doesn't mean he never had any children. We know he had some children. First Chronicles chapter 3, I think it is, tells us about them. But it goes on in the verse to say, no man of his seed will prosper and sit on the throne of David and rule in Judah.
And listen to me. I want you to know that this guy is in the messianic line. So here's the prophet, and he's saying, I know that the Messiah is coming to the line of Judah. But how can he do that when the line of Judah is corrupted at the point of Tamar?
How can that be a pure line? And then it's purified at the tenth generation with David, and he's back on track. Yes, he'll come out of the loins of David, and you flow out of David, and you come to Jeconiah, and all of a sudden God says one thing about this guy. Nobody ever coming out of his loins will be a king in Israel. And you say, that is the end of it.
It's over. Messiah was to be a king. He was to inherit the throne. He was to follow the royal line. But when you come to Jeconiah, it's over.
And would you like to know something interesting? There haven't been any kings since Jeconiah. There haven't been any. He's the last one. There haven't been any kings in Israel since him. That prophecy came to pass. There haven't been any. There never will be who come out of his loins.
Never. Look at Matthew chapter 1. Let me show you something absolutely fascinating. Now we saw down in verse 6 that we came to David, and then there's Solomon, Rehoboam, Abijah, Asa, Jehoshaphat. It goes down through these kings.
It comes all the way down to verse 11. And Josiah begot Jeconiah and his brethren about the time they were carried away to Babylon. That was the end of the monarchy. He was the last king. And no king ever came out of his loins because of his evil. So all the guys that followed after him, Chealtiel, Zerubbabel, Abiud, Elakim, Azor, Sadak, Allos, they never reigned on the throne.
Well they had the right, but they never reigned because the curse was there. And you come to verse 16, and Jacob begot Joseph. You know something about Joseph? If there hadn't been a curse to Jeconiah and Palestine hadn't been occupied by the Romans, guess who would have been the king of Israel? Who would it have been?
Joseph. He would have been the king. But he couldn't be the king. He couldn't be the king because he was cursed in that sense.
Now you can see the dilemma, can't you? So there's no king. But the right to rule is there. The legal right to rule is there. It's just that if you come out of the loins of Jeconiah, you can't take your scepter.
Hmm. How are we going to get a king out of this deal? I'll tell you how. Luke chapter 3, and see how the New Testament resolves this mystery. The kingly line came from David through his son Solomon, right? We just saw it. Look at this line.
3.31. Meliah, Mena, Metatha, Luke 3.31. Who was the son of Nathan? Who was the son of David? This is the genealogy of Mary.
Now listen. David had more than one child. The royal line came through Solomon, the right to the throne. The royal blood also came through his other son, Nathan. Mary was a descendant of Nathan. Thus she carried royal blood, but not the right to the throne. Joseph had the right to the throne but couldn't take it because his seed was cursed.
How are you going to resolve this? Go back to Matthew chapter 1 and watch this. Verse 16, and Jacob begot Joseph.
Listen. The husband of Mary, not the father of Jesus, right? The husband of Mary of whom was born Jesus called Christ.
Listen, you know how the mystery is solved? If Jesus had been born of the seed of Joseph, he never could have taken the throne. Because Joseph was not his physical father, he was not cursed. But because he was his legal father, he inherited the right to the throne without the curse of Jeconiah, and he got the royal blood from Mary. Nobody could have figured that out but God. People say, well, I don't know that the virgin birth is important. Then you're a fool because you're going to leave the Bible with mysteries that can't be solved.
Give you another one? Daniel chapter 2, verse 34. Daniel sees a vision of all the world empires and in the middle of this vision it all of a sudden does a great event in verse 34. A stone cut out without hands smote the image on its feet that were of iron and clay and broke them to pieces. Then where the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, the gold broke into pieces together, it became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors and the wind carried them away that no place was found for them. And the stone that smote the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
Now what Daniel sees is this great image of all the world empires. And when they are standing there in all their glory comes this stone cut out without hands. That is not a human being, not made from human sources in terms of this event. But this is a stone cut out without hands.
No man has anything to do with this. This is representative of Jesus Christ. He comes in His glory, smashes the image that is destroys the kingdoms of men.
His person fills the earth, becomes a whole mountain. This is a picture of the second coming of Jesus Christ. He comes as a glorious conquering stone, a stone of triumph, a stone of victory, a smiting stone, a crushing stone, a devastating stone, a stone of judgment. And so when they looked for Messiah, they saw a crushing stone.
Listen to what Isaiah said in chapter 8 verse 14. And He shall be for a sanctuary, but for a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, both to the houses of Israel for a trap and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and many among them shall stumble and fall and be broken and snared and be taken. And here you get a further picture of this stone. It is a stone of stumbling. It is a stone of offense, a rock of offense, a stumbling stone, a crushing, smiting stone of judgment. But then we get further in Isaiah's prophecy, chapter 28 verse 16.
Listen to what he says. Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth shall not be ashamed or confused. And now all of a sudden it isn't a stumbling stone and a rock of offense and a crushing, smiting stone of judgment. It's a precious stone, a cornerstone, a tested stone, a sure foundation, mystery. In Psalm 118 22 it says it's a rejected stone, a stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner.
The one that they threw away said, we're not putting that in our building. It's not right. It became the foundation for everything. And the mystery in the mind of the reader must be, well, how can one person be all these kinds of stones, a precious stone, a cornerstone, a cherished stone, a tested stone, a sure foundation, at the same time a smiting stone, a smashing stone, a crushing stone, a rock of offense and a stumbling stone. How can all this be? Well again, blessed are your ears for they hear and your eyes for they see. Peter resolves it, 1 Peter chapter 2. And it can only be resolved in Jesus Christ. He says in verse 6, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect and precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded, and he quotes the prophet of old, unto you therefore who believe he is precious. But unto them who are disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. And he just pulls together all of those prophecies with the exception of Daniel's and he says, If you believe he is a precious cornerstone, if you reject he is a crushing, smiting, stumbling stone.
And the mystery is resolved. It's not easy to understand Jesus Christ if you do it on your own. That's why you can't read the Old Testament without the New or you'll be mystified. That's why you can't read either without the instructing mind of the Spirit of God because the human mind cannot perceive the reality of Christ.
Can I bring you just one other? And I'll just allude to it. Genesis 49, 9 said that Judah was a lion and that the Messiah would come out of Judah and thus the Messiah would be a lion, fierce, powerful, deadly. The last prophet of the Old Testament was John the Baptist. Even though it writes about him in the New Testament, he's really the last of the Old Testament prophets and when he came, he didn't say the Messiah was a lion. He pointed to the Messiah and said, He's a what? He's a lamb.
John 1 36, Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. How can he be a lion and a lamb? How can he be a tearing, fierce, ferocious, dangerous lion on the other hand, a lamb?
Well, he is. Revelation sees him that way in chapter 5. It says, Weep not, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, hath prevailed to open the scroll and lucid seven seals. And I beheld and lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, in the midst of the elder stood a lamb. They call for a lion, they get a lamb. They say, Well, how can this be?
Perspective. For those who reject Jesus Christ, He's a lion. For those who accept Him, He's a lamb.
Christmas doesn't need to be mysterious. We don't have to follow some unimaginable hoax about Jesus. Jesus put it this way, Search the scriptures, right? John 5 39, For in them you realize you have eternal life, and there they which speak of me. All mystery in the Old Testament is unraveled and revealed in the living Lord Jesus Christ. And beloved, I really believe that one of the greatest validating proofs of Christianity is the harmonization of contradictory paradoxical prophecies in the Old Testament that find total resolution in Jesus Christ.
They could never be counterfeited. And He is who He said He was, the Christ of God, the Savior of the world. Let's pray. Our Father, we acknowledge that our minds are unable to resolve even the truth You've given us, except that we take both Testaments and be taught by the Spirit of God. Thank You, Father, that You laid down such prophecies to mystify even the saints so that even the well-meaning could never counterfeit them, let alone the critics and unbelievers. Thank You that the credentials of the Messiah are so divine, so otherworldly, so supernatural, that every event and circumstance and element was so totally controlled by Your sovereignty that there is no other explanation than that Jesus Christ is all in all, everything promised, the suffering Savior and the glorious King. And that when we understand how it all harmonizes in Him, in His birth, the sinless life, His death, His resurrection, His ascension, His intercession, and His soon return, we know we hold in our hands the very Word of God.
Father, it's our prayer that each of us would bow the knee to Jesus Christ, the living Christ, who was born in fulfillment of all the words of the prophets and will, in His own time, bring all things to pass and fulfill every word spoken of Him. That's John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary, showing you the mysterious Jesus. Today's message is part of his current study on grace to you, titled The Jesus of Christmas. Now, while it may seem unusual to hear John talking about Christmas when it's only the first week in November, there's a good reason for that. And John, you have often said that there is a heightened receptivity to spiritual things at Christmas, which translates into a wonderful opportunity for our listeners between now and December 25th. Yeah, there's no question about the fact that this is a God-given, government-authorized opportunity for evangelism, because even the most pagan person in our culture is faced with the birth of Christ, the reality of Christ. And so it's not as if you're introducing something alien to the moment, and this just gives us a great opportunity to be gospel witnesses at Christmas. So we also want you to be reminded that we provide a lot of resources that you can use. You may feel like you have some things to say, but you'd like a little more help to be able to communicate the gospel to someone at this time.
And we have those resources available. And today I want to mention one of them, which would be ideal for you to get. It's a book titled God's Gift of Christmas. Beautiful, beautiful kind of gift book. The important issue of Christmas isn't so much that Jesus came, but why he came. He came to deliver sinners from their sin and death and judgment. That is the gift of Christmas, and this book examines that great gospel truth.
Jesus is the only Savior, the only Redeemer, the only hope of salvation from hell and eternal suffering. So it's the kind of book that you can give. It can become a part of family tradition. You can read it in the days leading up to Christmas, and you can pass them out at Christmas as a gift. You can even use them as a kind of an advent calendar, reading a section of the book each day leading up to Christmas.
So it's a resource to use in your family to give to unbelievers. Hardcover, 120 pages available from Grace to You. If you'd like to get some of these, you can order them by contacting us and asking for God's Gift of Christmas. Yes, friend, this book will help you make sure you're equipped to tell your loved ones about the true significance of Christmas. To order God's Gift of Christmas, contact us today. You can order by calling 800-55-GRACE, or you can order from our website, our web address, gty.org. God's Gift of Christmas costs $12 and shipping is free. To order a copy for yourself and a few extras to give away, call 800-55-GRACE or visit our website, gty.org. And friend, keep in mind, now is an ideal time to get a jump on your Christmas shopping and find gifts that will bless your loved ones all year long. Something you might consider is the popular trio of books on some of the Bible's most compelling characters.
Those titles are 12 Ordinary Men, 12 Extraordinary Women, and 12 Unlikely Heroes. To see everything that's available and place your order, visit our website, gty.org. And remember, shipping is always free when you order from Grace to You. Now for John MacArthur and the entire Grace to You staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Be sure to watch Grace to You television this Sunday on DIRECTV Channel 378, and be here tomorrow as John helps energize your Christmas worship by showing you the amazing miracles surrounding Christ's birth. It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time, on Grace to You.
