For most of us the very concept of monarchy seems remote and
eccentric. In our opening prayer we asked for the restoration of all things by
the King of kings and a Lord of lords and that may cast us into unfamiliar
territory.
Each year at this time the world, knowingly or not,
celebrates the birth of a child born in Bethlehem, a child that was prophesied
over 1400 years before His birth…. In Genesis 22:18 we are told that through
Abraham’s offspring “all nations on earth will be blessed.” … He is from
the line of Jacob, Abraham’s grandson. Numbers 24:17: “I see him, but not
now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will
rise out of Israel.” … Isaiah 11:1 He is from the line of Jesse, the father
of King David: “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots
a branch will bear fruit. The spirit of the Lord will rest on him.” …
Jeremiah 23:5-6 We know He is from the line of King David: “The days are
coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, a
King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land … This
is the name by which he will be called: the Lord our righteous savior.”. …
Then Reaffirming that Jesus is from the line of King David, from 2 Samuel
7:12-13, which was actually spoken by Samuel to King David: “When your days
are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to
succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his
kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish
the throne of his kingdom forever.” … Micah, 5:2 tells us He was born into
the tribe of Judah in the region of Ephrathah, in the town of Bethlehem: “But
you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of
you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from
of old, from ancient times.” …
Isaiah 7:14 Tells us that He was born from a virgin: “Therefore
the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will
give birth to a son, and you will call him Immanuel.” Immanuel means
“God with us” and indicates the divinity of Jesus.” …
Psalm 72:9,10, says Jesus would be worshipped by shepherds
from the desert, and that foreign kings would present gifts to Him. “May
the desert tribes bow before him and his enemies lick the dust. May the Kings
of Tarshish and of distant shores bring tribute to him. May the Kings of Sheba
and Seba present him gifts. May all Kings bow down to him and all nations serve
him.” … The slaughter of the babes in Bethlehem at the time of Jesus’
birth, as we cover before, was Predicted in Jeremiah 31:15: “A voice is
heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and
refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.” … His escape to Egypt
foretold in Hosea 11:1: “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of
Egypt I called my son.” …
Then there is Daniel’s prophecy of the seventy weeks. He is
praying to the Lord when he reads the words of Jeremiah what the Lord revealed
to him concerning the completion of the 70 years of desolation. The angel
Gabriel delivers to him how much time would elapse until the first coming of
Christ. Sixty-nine weeks of years which comes to be 483 years. The time to
start the count would be when a decree would be issued to rebuild Jerusalem,
this being fulfilled by Artaxerxes I to Ezra in 458 BC. It has been shown that
69 weeks/483 years when Jesus enters Jerusalem on what will be known as Palm
Sunday and His crucifixion that week, takes us to April 6, 32 AD and the
fulfillment of Daniel’s 69th week; [the 7weeks plus 62 weeks], after the
sixty-two weeks the Messiah [Christ] will be cut off and have nothing.
To have it in context you must read Daniel 9:24-27.
Our Scripture, John 18: 33-37 - Pilate entered his
headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, "Are you the King of
the Jews?" 34 Jesus answered, "Do you say this of your own accord, or
did others say it to you about me?" 35 Pilate answered, "Am I a Jew?
Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have
you done?" 36 Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If my
kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might
not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world."
37 Then Pilate said to him, "So you are a king?" Jesus answered,
"You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this
purpose I have come into the world--to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who
is of the truth listens to my voice."
Jesus answers Pilate’s question, “You say rightly that
I am a king:” Jesus did not deny that He was a king. He insisted
that He was born a king, and to be a different kind of King. He came to
be a King of Truth, that He should bear witness to the truth. Jesus
implies that He was born a King, and that He was born with a definite purpose.
The words are a pregnant proof of an Incarnation of the Son of God.” (Alford).
All four gospels record Jesus answering Pilate’s question,
“are you king of the Jews?” in the affirmative. Then they crucified Him, as the
prophecy of Daniel says, after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah [Christ]
will be cut off and have nothing.
But Jesus rose from the dead on the Feast of First Fruits,
the resurrection foretold in Psalm 16:10, affirmed in Acts 13:35 -- For You
will not abandon my soul to Sheol; Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo
decay.
Jesus Himself said about His resurrection - Matt. 12:40, just
as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so
will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Then He ascended into heaven where He now sits at the right
hand of the Father. This King crucified naked on the cross, will return soon to
establish His heavenly kingdom here on earth: Then will appear in heaven the
sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and
they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and
great glory. Matt 24:30; And the final prophecy in Revelation 1: 7-8
-- Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even
those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him.
Even so. Amen. 8 "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God,
"who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."
Do you
not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have
you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He who sits above
the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who
stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell
in; who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as
emptiness. Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken
root in the earth, when he blows on them, and they wither, and the tempest
carries them off like stubble. To whom then will you compare me, that I should
be like him? says the Holy One. [Isa 40:21-25]
Oh Lord, we look with anxious anticipation for your return to
establish the kingdom for which you were born. We look and pray for the
resurrection of the saints who will be like you in their glorified bodies.
Let us pray, Lord I borrow from Daniel’s prayer to You, O
our God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his pleas for mercy, and
for your own sake, O Lord, make your face to shine upon [us]; O my God,
incline your ear and hear. Open your eyes and see the desolations of your
saints, we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness,
but because of your great mercy. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay
attention and act. Delay not, for your own sake, O my God, because ... your
people are called by your name." [Dan 9: 17-19]
In the name of the Most Holy, Jesus our Lord, our King --
No comments:
Post a Comment