Derrick Overholt: So we're going to continue reading right from, just picking right up from where Scott was at this past Sunday.
Derrick Overholt: We're going to continue on in Isaiah, chapter 59, the last half of verse 15, going on into 21.
Derrick Overholt: We'll read it from the NLT today, and so we'll just continue with just.
Derrick Overholt: If you don't have NLT with you, you can read it off the screen.
Derrick Overholt: The Lord looked and was displeased to find that there was no justice.
Derrick Overholt: He was amazed to see that no one intervened to help the oppressed.
Derrick Overholt: So he himself stepped in to save them with his strong arm, and his justice sustained them.
Derrick Overholt: He put on righteousness as body armor and placed the helmet of salvation on his head.
Derrick Overholt: He clothed himself with a robe of vengeance and wrapped himself in a cloak of divine passion.
Derrick Overholt: He will repay his enemies for their evil deeds.
Derrick Overholt: His fury will fall on his foes.
Derrick Overholt: He will pay them back even to the ends of the earth.
Derrick Overholt: In the west, people will respect the name of the Lord, and in the east they will glorify him, for he will come like a raging flood tide driven by the breath of the Lord.
Derrick Overholt: The Redeemer will come to Jerusalem to buy back those in Israel who have turned from their sins, says the Lord, and this is my covenant with them, says the Lord.
Derrick Overholt: My spirit will not leave them, and neither will these words I've given you.
Derrick Overholt: They will be on your lips and the lips of your children and your children's children forever.
Derrick Overholt: I, the Lord, have spoken.
Derrick Overholt: Let's pray, father, we just thank you so much for who you are and what you've done for us, father, and we're reading into your word today, and even while I was reading, even though I've read this so many times right there, that these words that we're reading today will be on our lips and they're on our lips here today.
Derrick Overholt: Because you are so good, god, I just pray that you'd help us to see what you have for us today in these scriptures.
Derrick Overholt: Lord, in Jesus' name, amen.
Derrick Overholt: Wow, there's a lot to unpack in these scriptures.
Derrick Overholt: There's a lot said here and it's just incredible.
Derrick Overholt: I had this week a hard time when I was studying it and putting it all together.
Derrick Overholt: I had 15 million things I wanted to talk about and I had to finally send them over to Tyler and be like help me out, man, they're not lining up.
Derrick Overholt: And he just put them in order and made sense of it all, because it just brings up so much.
Derrick Overholt: You know, thinking about the history of our people, of the Israel and the future, and then all the way back to the New Testament and all the words that are coming out of the New Testament, and then, as you're reading those, if you've studied some of the Old Testament, you're like I've read this before, like where's this coming from?
Derrick Overholt: You know, and it's just incredible to see that.
Derrick Overholt: And we're going to continue in the Reflection Series and I'm going to try to answer the question this morning why does it matter that Jesus came to earth?
Derrick Overholt: Right?
Derrick Overholt: So we're going to continue on with that.
Derrick Overholt: So the prophecy we just heard is a beacon of hope for Israel.
Derrick Overholt: It had been many years I mean thousands of years in desolation, thousands of years with no hope, and these scriptures were like a beacon of hope, like a ship out at sea with a bad storm and it's being tattered and it's being flipped and turned and it thinks it has no hope because it's fixing to sink.
Derrick Overholt: And then they see a light in the distance.
Derrick Overholt: This scripture is that light.
Derrick Overholt: This scripture is that light in the distance for them.
Derrick Overholt: And so God gives us this beacon of hope.
Derrick Overholt: But what hope?
Derrick Overholt: Well, the scriptures we just read are about a man named Jesus and that's it didn't say his name.
Derrick Overholt: He doesn't need to say his name because it just repeatedly kept talking about the Redeemer, and it was really cool.
Derrick Overholt: We're going to see that today and of course, we are in this Christmas season right now, right, and we're fixing to celebrate with our families and those type of things.
Derrick Overholt: But you realize that we wouldn't have crucifixion, resurrection if we didn't have the birth.
Derrick Overholt: We spent a lot of time each year talking about the Crucifixion and the resurrection, of course, because that is how the blood of Christ was shed for us and set us free.
Derrick Overholt: But if he didn't come to earth, there would have been a none of that.
Derrick Overholt: So this is the beginning.
Derrick Overholt: Christmas is about Jesus.
Derrick Overholt: This is the beginning of the story of redemption.
Derrick Overholt: But is it just the beginning?
Derrick Overholt: We'll see more of that.
Derrick Overholt: Maybe some of us need to be reminded of what Christmas is.
Derrick Overholt: Some of us might not even know what Christmas is truly about.
Derrick Overholt: They know that okay.
Derrick Overholt: Yeah, it's about Jesus.
Derrick Overholt: But today I want to shed just a little bit of history and facts about Christmas Against popular opinion.
Derrick Overholt: It has nothing to do with a fat man in a red suit, has Nothing to do with the gifts around your tree has nothing to do with the tree, all right.
Derrick Overholt: It has everything to do with the birth of a little child and, as we'll see, was foretold thousands of years before his birth.
Derrick Overholt: Jesus did come.
Derrick Overholt: For some of you skeptics, maybe online or even in the room Did Jesus come?
Derrick Overholt: Well, yeah, there's so many things in all of human history that states it ancient writings outside of the Bible, if you need much more time was wrapped around his whole coming to earth, bc ad right, so it's easy to see.
Derrick Overholt: History proves that Jesus did come.
Derrick Overholt: Historians would be crazy to even try to say that he didn't come, because there's just too many ancient writings Other than the Bible saying that this man, jesus, was born.
Derrick Overholt: Christmas isn't just a holiday that was made up to make the season nice.
Derrick Overholt: That's not what it's made for.
Derrick Overholt: We could have just had cookies and cocoa for that.
Derrick Overholt: Even in its earliest form, christmas was to remember Jesus birth.
Derrick Overholt: Now here's the thing in the Bible it doesn't tell us what day Jesus was born.
Derrick Overholt: We see that.
Derrick Overholt: But the first man to ever call December the 25th Christmas Day, with Jesus's birthday, was in the year 221, and I'm gonna butcher his name bad, I'm sure.
Derrick Overholt: I'm sure, I'm sure.
Derrick Overholt: I'm sure this guy's the one who started calling it Christmas, and some say that he uses date to correlate the Roman holiday, winter solstice, trying to take it away from, like the Romans, so that they could start celebrating something better than the idol, right?
Derrick Overholt: A second view suggests that December the 5th came in the year two and a half.
Derrick Overholt: The second view suggests that December the 5th became became the date of Jesus's birthday by deductive reasoning which identified the spring equinox as the date of creation and then the fourth day of creation when light was created as Jesus conception, which would make sense, right?
Derrick Overholt: If that is true, then that day was March the 25th, nine months later, december the 25th.
Derrick Overholt: So that's another view.
Derrick Overholt: I'm gonna tell you which one I believe.
Derrick Overholt: No, I'm not, because it doesn't matter.
Derrick Overholt: None of these reasons are important.
Derrick Overholt: What is important is that we celebrate Jesus.
Derrick Overholt: He is an amazing gift.
Derrick Overholt: It's not about getting these gifts.
Derrick Overholt: It's about we've already gotten the greatest gift ever.
Derrick Overholt: So, as we can see in the scriptures we read in Isaiah 59 there is a plan that God has always had.
Derrick Overholt: Always it's been part of the plan, and from time to time God would share with some of his prophets things that were to come To give them little beacons of hope.
Derrick Overholt: These particular scripture that we just read was prophecies given to Isaiah For the people of Judah In the southern kingdom of Israel, which is where the promised Messiah would come from.
Derrick Overholt: So it matters that Jesus came and how he came, so that God's plan of salvation would come to pass Again.
Derrick Overholt: It's all the way back to the beginning.
Derrick Overholt: We're gonna study that.
Derrick Overholt: So it was the Father God's idea for Jesus to come to the earth All the way from the beginning of time.
Derrick Overholt: Pay attention, as we talk about these scriptures, that the Trinity is present through this entire prophecy God, the Father, the Son and the Spirit.
Derrick Overholt: We'll start with God, the Father.
Derrick Overholt: He looked up on the conditions of the earth and was saddened and sicked.
Derrick Overholt: The Lord looked and was displeased to find that there was no justice.
Derrick Overholt: He was amazed to see that no one intervened to help the oppressed.
Derrick Overholt: So he himself stepped in to save them with his strong arm and his justice sustained him.
Derrick Overholt: There was no justice and no hope, because no human being in this world could step up and help the oppressed us.
Derrick Overholt: Only Jesus could bring salvation to the world.
Derrick Overholt: God knew that since the fall of man there wasn't anybody that could ever step up.
Derrick Overholt: There wasn't anybody that could redeem his creation back to himself.
Derrick Overholt: So, as he promised, he sent his son, jesus, to be the Redeemer of the world.
Derrick Overholt: Listen to the scripture we read.
Derrick Overholt: So he himself stepped in to save them with his strong arm and his justice.
Derrick Overholt: God sustained him.
Derrick Overholt: Jesus the Redeemer will come to Jerusalem.
Derrick Overholt: Who's a Redeemer?
Derrick Overholt: Jesus the Redeemer will come to Jerusalem to buy back those in Israel who have turned from their sins, says the Lord.
Derrick Overholt: We're already reading the gospel of Jesus, 700 years before Jesus was born.
Derrick Overholt: Those who repent, the Redeemer will save.
Derrick Overholt: Wow, what a beacon of hope for these people.
Derrick Overholt: If Jesus didn't come, we would still be in complete desolation.
Derrick Overholt: We'd still have no light.
Derrick Overholt: We'd still be in the same place, because Jesus is the light.
Derrick Overholt: He was the light in a dark room.
Derrick Overholt: That's why we call him the light of the world, because the world was dark.
Derrick Overholt: Until he came, there was no hope.
Derrick Overholt: He became the hope.
Derrick Overholt: Another Old Testament prophet, micah, describes a transformation in Micah 7.7, that he realized as God's speaking to him and telling him things that were going to happen.
Derrick Overholt: He says but as for me, I will look to the Lord, I will wait for God of my salvation.
Derrick Overholt: My God will hear me rejoice, not over me, my enemy.
Derrick Overholt: When I shall fall, or when I fall, cause I shall rise.
Derrick Overholt: When I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me.
Derrick Overholt: He knew that this was coming because God was revealing.
Derrick Overholt: The light is coming and we know that Jesus has always been the light.
Derrick Overholt: All of life was created through him.
Derrick Overholt: We see that in John, that all of the life was completely created through him.
Derrick Overholt: You're only here today because God allows you to be here.
Derrick Overholt: Whether you belong to him or not, you're only breathing because God allows you to.
Derrick Overholt: You guys get that, like, has anybody got a choice to breathe right now?
Derrick Overholt: Like you got the choice for what about?
Derrick Overholt: Maybe 60 seconds, and then your lungs choose differently for you, right, who gave your lungs the command to do that?
Derrick Overholt: God, right, and if there were no oxygen in the room, you'd just die.
Derrick Overholt: Right, god gives you the oxygen, and so, for you online or the skeptics in the room, you have no choice to breathe.
Derrick Overholt: You don't Only God gave it to you.
Derrick Overholt: And so if you know Jesus today or you don't know Jesus today, you think about the grace and the mercy that he has on your life that he still allowed you to breathe.
Derrick Overholt: Today, even when you're not in right with him, he still lets you breathe.
Derrick Overholt: He's still, and I think about this from time to time.
Derrick Overholt: My little girl will make stuff at home.
Derrick Overholt: She's a real artistic young lady and she will make things and then, like, when it don't turn out the way she wants it to, she just throws it in the trash.
Derrick Overholt: God hasn't never done that, or else I'd have been in the trash a long time ago.
Derrick Overholt: God created me.
Derrick Overholt: I didn't do exactly what he wanted me to do.
Derrick Overholt: I didn't stand exactly how he wanted me to, how he created me.
Derrick Overholt: I didn't do that and I still don't.
Derrick Overholt: And instead of getting mad at me and throwing me in the trash, he's still.
Derrick Overholt: He's still working with me because he loves me, and it's the same thing for all of time.
Derrick Overholt: And that's where this scripture brings us Now.
Derrick Overholt: Check this out.
Derrick Overholt: The presence of the Holy Spirit would be that with those who Jesus redeemed forever.
Derrick Overholt: We talked about God, the Redeemer, jesus, and now the Holy Spirit.
Derrick Overholt: You can't say he's not talking about the Spirit, because he said and my spirit right, and this is my covenant with them, says the Lord, my spirit will not leave them, and neither will the words I give to you.
Derrick Overholt: They will be on your lips and on the lips of your children and your children's children forever.
Derrick Overholt: I, the Lord, have spoken.
Derrick Overholt: When I read that the first time, I'm brought straight to where Jesus says if I leave, when I leave, I leave you the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, and through him you do greater things than even I have done.
Derrick Overholt: Wow, 700 years before, 700 years before, the gospel of Jesus is already being told of what would happen and how it would happen.
Derrick Overholt: See, the prophecies given from God must be fulfilled for his redemptive plan to work.
Derrick Overholt: One of the awesome things about the Bible, one of the things I love when I'm reading it, is to see how it proves itself like, how it is the truth.
Derrick Overholt: And the Bible is remarkably self-consistent.
Derrick Overholt: Despite being written by more than 40 different authors in a time span of 1500 years, over 13 different countries and three different continents, while some were in war and some were going through other circumstances with crazy multitude of issues, the Bible still holds itself true to itself.
Derrick Overholt: It doesn't come against itself.
Derrick Overholt: One writer doesn't come against the other, and that, right there, blows my mind that over here, this person's never heard of this guy's writing, and yet this one's writing the same thing as this one is God's revealing to both of them.
Derrick Overholt: God's talking to both of them, and over 100 years, because you remember, they weren't walking around with the Bible like we have it on our cell phone right.
Derrick Overholt: They may have seen some other writings we know they probably saw the Torah, but some of the other writings from different prophets, from one area to the other area, like they probably didn't see each other's writings, and yet God's speaking to this one and God's speaking to this one and God's speaking to this one over hundreds of years.
Derrick Overholt: And then it was brought together into the Bible that we know today, and so these holy scriptures, for hundreds of years before Jesus' birth, there was a number of prophets that gave that God gave a glimpse of Jesus' life too.
Derrick Overholt: Now, isaiah and Micah that we're gonna read from in just a moment.
Derrick Overholt: They were written in the years 740 to 700 BC and Micah was 720 to 700 BC, so even they're speaking, relatively speaking, we're only talking maybe 15, 20 years in between these two prophets receiving this revelation from God.
Derrick Overholt: It could have been at the same time, because we don't know the exact dates it was written, but that is pretty close that God is revealing to them this promise that is to come.
Derrick Overholt: And the way that he's revealing it to them is very, very detailed.
Derrick Overholt: It's not just like, hey, I'm gonna send you somebody, just wait for me.
Derrick Overholt: No, he's gonna go down the street, he's gonna walk over, you're gonna meet him over here and he's gonna be over there and he's gonna look like this and he's giving us details, incredible details, and so I was thinking about this earlier in the week is it'd be like somebody in the year 1300, like telling us something was gonna happen and we keep passing this down and then like it happens today.
Derrick Overholt: That's how many years that this happened.
Derrick Overholt: I mean, that is a long time to wait, right?
Derrick Overholt: So let's look at these scripture there's 700 years before Jesus was born.
Derrick Overholt: 700 years is still below his mind.
Derrick Overholt: Therefore, the Lord himself and I mean I'm sorry, I mean Isaiah 714 is probably on the screen.
Derrick Overholt: Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel.
Derrick Overholt: Then, over in Isaiah 9-6, to us a child is born, to us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulders and his name should be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, prince of Peace and over.
Derrick Overholt: In Micah, chapter 5, verse 2, but you, o Bethlehem, ephrathah, who are too little to become to be among the clans of Judah for you, shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from old, from ancient times, ancient times.
Derrick Overholt: This child to come is going to come from ancient times, from the beginning of the world, ancient times.
Derrick Overholt: He's always been there, 700 years.
Derrick Overholt: And so now I'm gonna we're gonna move on in just a moment to read, but as we begin to read it, I want to, I want us to realize that the events that took place, each and every single one of them, I've been talking about here, as he is giving us details of what's gonna happen, that they go back to help fulfill over 300 prophecies that have been given over the last 3,500 years.
Derrick Overholt: It started back in Genesis, chapter 3, when God said that this offspring of a woman would crush the serpent.
Derrick Overholt: All the way back to Genesis 17, when God promised Abraham that he would establish an everlasting covenant with Isaac's offspring.
Derrick Overholt: Wow, for that long these details had been floating around, and we must understand that none of these details happened by chance, because there is no way at all that it is possible for someone to accidentally fulfill over 300 prophecies.
Derrick Overholt: It's impossible.
Derrick Overholt: And besides that, they started to be fulfilled before Jesus was even conceived in Mary.
Derrick Overholt: These prophecies in Isaiah 40 and Micah 3 talk about John the Baptist, who was gonna come to prepare the way.
Derrick Overholt: And then we see that before John the Baptist was born, zachariah, who's a priest in the Jerusalem temple, and his wife Elizabeth.
Derrick Overholt: They're very old, they've never been able to have children, but an angelic visitation comes to them and tells them that they would have a son who would make way for the Savior.
Derrick Overholt: It's already happening and Jesus is not even there yet.
Derrick Overholt: And besides that, let's go back a little bit further, a little bit more common, since here a baby can't choose where it's going to be born.
Derrick Overholt: You know, a baby's never gotten to say, oh, I'm gonna go to Bethlehem and I'm gonna be born in Knoxville.
Derrick Overholt: Of course we know babies can't choose that, also, that a baby couldn't choose that his mama would be a virgin.
Derrick Overholt: Let's go back one more step.
Derrick Overholt: A virgin can't have a child, right, but yet she did.
Derrick Overholt: And the fact, too, that these shepherds sort of feel nearby and God comes to them in an angelic visitation and tells them hey, right down the street, you're fixing to have the Messiah, he's coming.
Derrick Overholt: My promise from 700 years ago, it's fixing to happen.
Derrick Overholt: So we need to realize that while we read and understand the Christmas story as it is, we don't need to just read through the scriptures because we've heard it 1500 times.
Derrick Overholt: We need to listen to their details, because in the details is the proof that Jesus is the Messiah.
Derrick Overholt: He has come to save us.
Derrick Overholt: It is a promise from God being fulfilled.
Derrick Overholt: It is a prophecy coming true.
Derrick Overholt: That's huge.
Derrick Overholt: It's not just a great little story about a little baby Jesus, born in a little stable.
Derrick Overholt: This is the promise Messiah coming that has been in history for as long as you could think.
Derrick Overholt: So let's go to Luke 2, verse 1 through 20.
Derrick Overholt: So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth to Galilee, to Judea, to Bethlehem, the town of David, because he belonged to the house and the line of David we read about that right.
Derrick Overholt: And he went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.
Derrick Overholt: While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son.
Derrick Overholt: She wrapped him in clothes and placed him in a manger because there was no guest room available for them and there were shepherds living in the fields nearby keeping watch over their flocks.
Derrick Overholt: At night, an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were terrified.
Derrick Overholt: But the angel said to them do not be afraid.
Derrick Overholt: I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all people.
Derrick Overholt: Today, in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you.
Derrick Overholt: He is the Messiah, the Lord.
Derrick Overholt: Today, in the town of David, a Savior has been born, and he will be and he is the Messiah.
Derrick Overholt: This will be a sign to you.
Derrick Overholt: You will find the baby wrapped in clothes and lying in a manger.
Derrick Overholt: Suddenly, a company of great heavenly hosts appeared, with the angel praising God and saying Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth, peace to those whom his favor rests.
Derrick Overholt: When the angels had left and gone into heaven, the shepherds asked, said to one another Let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.
Derrick Overholt: So they hurried off and they found Mary and Joseph and the baby who was lying in a manger.
Derrick Overholt: And when they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told to them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at the shepherds, what the shepherds said to them.
Derrick Overholt: But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart, and the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for the things that they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
Derrick Overholt: So what's the big deal about Jesus' birth?
Derrick Overholt: Why does it matter?
Derrick Overholt: Because it's the fulfillment of what God said in plan thousands of years before.
Derrick Overholt: God was going to make straight the paths.
Derrick Overholt: He was going to bring light in the darkness.
Derrick Overholt: He was going to bring sight to the blind, the spiritual blind.
Derrick Overholt: The big deal about Christmas that we do every year celebrates our Savior has come, redemption is here, salvation is ours to have as a free gift.
Derrick Overholt: Can we put that gift down on the tree Today?
Derrick Overholt: The light has come and some of you today might be hearing and understanding for the first time that, wow, jesus really is the Messiah.
Derrick Overholt: And if he is the Messiah, what does that mean for your life?
Derrick Overholt: Because Jesus Christ called himself God.
Derrick Overholt: He said he and God are one.
Derrick Overholt: Jesus Christ said I'm the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me.
Derrick Overholt: If we believe and wholeheartedly know, through history and all facts, that Jesus was born in this manner, this is a God appointed thing.
Derrick Overholt: No one else in all of human history has been born in this way.
Derrick Overholt: This is God coming as his son, the Messiah.
Derrick Overholt: So if he is and he is who he says he is what does that mean for your life?
Derrick Overholt: Are you going to continue living life in just this mediocre way, just going on?
Derrick Overholt: Or today, now that you realize that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven, are you ready to make a decision that you're going to follow him, because that's the only way to God, that's the only way that God has been talking about for thousands of years to redeem you and I to him was through Jesus Christ.
Derrick Overholt: And the word of God tells us that if we believe on him, we believe that he is the Messiah, that he came and died and rose again, that we can be his and he can make us one with him again, we will never be alone, because he will put place in us the Holy Spirit that will lead and guide us and direct us through the darkest of times that as well had been prophesied hundreds of years before.
Derrick Overholt: God said that I will put my spirit on them and my spirit will never leave them.
Derrick Overholt: These are the promises for us today, and it all began with a baby being born in Bethlehem that had been talked about for thousands of years.
Derrick Overholt: Father, we just come to you today, god.
Derrick Overholt: I pray if there's anyone here that don't know you that today, lord, that they would think about turning to you, giving their life wholeheartedly to you.
Derrick Overholt: King of the world, savior of the world, the Messiah that we have been waiting for for thousands of years, two thousand years ago, came, lived, died on the cross and rose again, all foretold in all of our history books telling us that it actually happened, god, we just thank you, lord, for what you have done for us, and we pray that no one would leave here without turning their heart to you.
Derrick Overholt: Jesus Got anybody watching online right now, lord.
Derrick Overholt: I just pray that you move in their heart.
Derrick Overholt: You would lead them to you, jesus, the only way to the Father, and that they would turn their lives completely over to you.
Derrick Overholt: In the name of Jesus, amen.