A Picture in Advance

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Download MP3 (right click to save)

A college student was supposed to pick me up at this small town airport, and I was going to go to his college to speak. He had my press photo in his hand; just one of those typical head shots...mug shots, you know, that you send out to newspapers and so on. I didn't, of course, have a photo of him. So who would you expect to find who in that airport? It wasn't exactly LaGuardia or Kennedy or Newark Airport. There were only two gates.

My flight came in and I kept waiting for someone to come up and identify themselves, but pretty soon everybody cleared out and there were only two people left. There was me and there was this college student walking back and forth looking at a photo in his hand, looking at me, looking at the photo, looking at me. And the only other person there was the man with a briefcase looking at the college student.

Well, I knew his name was Jeff. I had talked to him on the phone. I said, "Is that you, Jeff?" He looked at the picture again and said, "Is that you, Ron?" I said, "It sure is!" He said, "Oh, in the picture you look tall." What? I must have a tall head. I guess I just got the wrong body. Well now, look! Anyone who has a picture in advance ought to recognize the man when He comes. Right?

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Picture in Advance."

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Matthew 1:21. It's part of the Christmas Story, and the angel is speaking to Joseph. "'She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.' All this took place to fulfill what the Lord has said to the prophet; 'The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, (That's a quote from the book of Isaiah.) and they will call him Immanuel, which means God with us.'"

God says here that "When My Son comes He'll be the fulfillment of a prophecy." He will, in fact, be the fulfillment of scores of prophecies. For two thousand years God had been sending ahead a picture of what His Son would look like when He came to earth. It's sort of like an inverted pyramid. It starts out very broad and comes down to a very narrowly focused picture in advance of what the Messiah will look like.

In Genesis 3:15, way back in the Garden of Eden, God says the answer to sin would be a descendent of Eve. In other words, a man would come. Then in Genesis 12:15, He says what nation He will come from. Of all the nations on earth, it says that the Messiah's blessings will come through the Nation of Israel. Then in Genesis chapter 49, God narrows it down a little more; gives us a little more focused photograph. He says He'll come from the tribe out of the twelve tribes of Israel...look for Him to come from the tribe of Judah.

Then in Isaiah 11:1 He narrows it down to the family. He says He'll come out of the family of David. Isaiah chapter 7, the method – a virgin birth. How could you miss it? Micah 5:2, He says, "Now, here's the place. He'll be born in a little village called Bethlehem." Isaiah 53 describes His death. The book of Zachariah even tells the number of pieces of silver He'll be betrayed for.

They had the picture in their hands back then and they didn't recognize Him. John 1:11, "He came to His own and His own did not receive Him." You say, "How could they miss Him?" Well how can we? We don't just have prophecies, we've got history. We know He walked out of His grave under His own power.

He's identified himself to you as the one you've been looking for. Could it be you're still withholding your allegiance? Could it be you're circling Him like that fellow did at the airport with me; checking out who He is? Well, sometime you've got to do something with Him. John 1:12 says, "As many as received Him, to everyone who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God."

Maybe sometime for you is Christmas time. You don't need evidence now, you need faith. Don't circle Jesus any more. Come to Him and say, "Lord, you are the one I've spent a lifetime searching for."

I would love to help you get started with Him this Christmas. I would invite you to join me at our website. It's ANewStory.com. It could be the beginning of your new story. If you'll tell Jesus, "I'm Yours", well I know where you'll be. You'll be home for Christmas.