Mims Chapel Church 

LESSON 4 • Fourth Week

The Prophets Early
Messianic Prophecies

Background Reading                  Devotional Reading
Isaiah 7:14-16; 8:1-9; 9:6;              Psalm 22:1-31
Zechariah 9:9; Hosea 11 : 1 ;
Micah 5:2-4; Matthew 2:8;
21 :1-4; Luke 24:25-26; 44-49

Central Verse
"Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel."
Isaiah 7:14, KJV

"All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means 'God is with us')."
Isaiah 7:14, NLT

Key Terms
Sovereignty—Supreme power especially over a body politic—freedom from external control.
Unprecedented—Not done or experienced before.
Predictable—Capable of being foretold on the basis of observation, experience, or reasoning.

Redemption—The act, process, or an instance of serving to offset or compensate for a defect.

Introduction

The Lord has said to His people that He will do nothing without letting them know what He is doing (Amos 3:7). God desires to have a close powerful relationship with His chosen children, so He informs them of most of his plans through His prophets. His children must stay connected to Him so they can know Him and know how to follow Him. Then they will abide with Him, grow, and thrive in their relationship with Him. In the bible God used His prophets to reveal His will, guide His people, and foretell His plans. During uncertainty and unprecedented times when it seems like nothing is predictable, the believers can look to God's Word and know that He still reigns. Just as His prophecies concerning the Messiah came to pass, every word that He sends will come to pass.

The believers can rest on the sovereignty of God and know and understand that God uses unexpected encounters to bring unexpected blessings to his children. They must remember that God always has a plan for His world, and He will accomplish His will in the earth.

Discussion
The greatest privilege of every believer is to be able to hunger after God, live for Him and know that He will always be there for him. God used His Prophets during a time when it seemed that the enemy was winning and faith and miracles seemed almost ridiculous after Adam had sinned, and sin seemed to reign in the earth. He sent prophecies about His Son who would come in a way that no one had ever heard of; never had a virgin brought forth a child. Everyone knows that it requires a man and a woman coming together in an act to produce a baby.

But God spoke to His servants, the Prophets and they prophesied about a Son who would give up His life to make things right for mankind. One of the fundamental teachings of Holiness is that Jesus Christ (the Messiah) is a fulfillment of the prophecies of the Old Testament as told to the Prophets of God. The Book of Hebrews tells the believers that Christ is the heir of all that God spoke through His prophets. And Jesus told the believers that He came to fulfill the law and the prophets (Matthews 5:17).

It's important for the believers to know that every book in the bible points to the coming of the Messiah. It's amazing to learn that God loved His children so much that He spoke to His prophets and leaders and let them know that two thousand years later His Son would come as a babe and be rejected by the society of the day. God let His family know that as much as the devil hates them His love is always greater and they are worth saving. For it was prophesied that Jesus would save his people from their sins. God's message of redemption for his children began to be manifested in the garden. He began pointing to the coming of Jesus Christ as the promised Messiah.

When David wrote Psalm twenty-two, he told of his suffering which was prophetic of Christ's suffering on the cross. Prophets told of His birth, His rejection, His flight into Egypt and His triumph ride on the donkey. It was also told of His betrayal, the beating, the cruel death, the burial, and His resurrection. God wants His children to know his Son Jesus so He allowed the Prophets to talk about Him throughout the bible in a prophetic way.

His names were prophesied as Wonderful Counsellor, The Mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. These names were essential in understanding Jesus's character and revealed the needs of His people. He was also called Emmanuel, which means God is with us. His name is Jesus, the righteous Son of God, Lily of the Valley and the Bright and Morning Star.

His name is so powerful that whoever calls on his name shall be saved. It matters not what his class is or his race. It doesn't matter what his background was, where he came from, what a person had done, nor how long he had done it. If he calls Jesus name, he can be saved (Romans 10:13)

Conclusion

Jesus is not just a teacher, a healer, or a prophet, He is the visible image of the invisible God. He told his disciples that when they saw Him, they were looking at His Father. For through Jesus the believers see the fullness of who God is and what He desires for each one of His children. When the believer embraces Jesus, it changes his view of God, his identity, his purpose, and the power that he lives by. He becomes a royal child kept by the power of God.

Most believers want to know God in a profound and deeper way. They want to feel his presence, hear His voice, and access his power every day, and God desires the same thing from His children. God wants to have a warm, powerful relationship with each believer and He has made this possible by sending His Son. Jesus became flesh and dwelled among humans. He experienced every temptation that any human man would but He condemned sin in the flesh and made it possible that men could be reconnected with His Father. He let men see that even in the midst of sin, they don't have to sin.

The believers must believe and accept that fact that a virgin birthed God's Son and that the Son lived on earth and was crucified on a cross. We must believe that He was buried in a grave, rose out of the grave on the third morning and later went back to heaven to his Father and is now seated on His Father's right hand. Believers must know that Jesus will one day return to gather His bride (the church) and live forever in the New Jerusalem.


Questions

Why was it important that the believers know about messianic prophecies?
How does it help to know that prophecy is true?
Why were the different names prophesied?
How has the messianic prophecy changed your life?

Essential Thought- "God does not want his believers ignorant; He wants them to be aware of the times they live in."

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