The Promise of Christ’s First Coming

Introduction: The fact of the birth of Jesus Christ was assured by the promise of God. But His coming in human flesh was preceded by His preexistence and the many promises/ prophecies found in the Old Testament. When these were fulfilled, He came.

I. HIS PREEXISTENCE SECURES THE PROMISE

 Note:  Jesus Christ did not come into existence at His birth.  As God He is eternal, having neither beginning nor ending.  As the Son of God, or second Person in the Trinity/Godhead, He has always been one with the Father and the Holy Spirit.  Therefore in order for there to be the promise of His coming, He first had to come from somewhere.  That “somewhere” dwells in eternity past, before the creation of time, man, beast, or this present world.  The fact of His preexistence as the Son of God assures us of His ability to step into the realm of time and the abode of man to fulfill His Father’s plan and purpose.

Jesus Christ was possessed (“being with Him and in Him; to make use of Him”) by God for His own purposes, and to fulfilled His own plans. 
“The LORD possessed Me [Christ] in the beginning of His way, before His works of old.”  Proverbs 8:22

1. Jesus Christ is the outworking of God, or His agent to accomplish God’s goals. His coming was in the purpose of God to reveal the Father, and to accomplish salvation. 

Jesus Christ is the mighty God.
“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”  Isaiah 9:6

1. Jesus Christ is the powerful God, capable of accomplishing any task that He determines. His coming was assured by God’s promise of a supernatural being, which only Christ had the power to fulfill.

 Jesus Christ is the everlasting Father (“Father of eternity”).
“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”  Isaiah 9:6

1. “Jesus Christ is not the Father, but the Son and the Father are One, and the Father is in Him, and He is in the Father, and he that has seen the One has seen the Other, and yet They are distinct.”  This term seems to apply especially to the acts of Christ in creation and regeneration (see A.).
2. Christ also becomes the everlasting Father to those who, by faith, become His children.  Because Christ is the active agent in the acts of God, His promised coming was assured.

 Jesus Christ’s goings forth (“origin; place of going out from”) have been from old.
“But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; Whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”  Micah 5:2

       1. His work did not begin at His birth, but from eternity past He was active in the redemptive plan of God for His people. His going forth assured His coming.

 Jesus Christ had no beginning, but in the beginning was with God and was God.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.”  John 1:1-2

1. Though Jesus came as a man, He was ever the eternal God.
2. As the Logos (Word), Jesus Christ is “the essential Revealer of the Divine Being.”  By Him we can know God.  By Him God reveals His Person.
3. Jesus Christ’s coming was assured by the fact that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.

Jesus Christ made everything that was made (see A.). 
“All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made. In Him was Life; and the Life was the Light of men. And the Light shined in darkness...”  John 1:3-5a

1. Since Christ was the active Agent of God’s will, He had to be before everything, existing and creating as the Son of God. 2. Christ was the originator of life, which was to be the Light of men. His coming was assured since that Light had to shine in darkenss.

Jesus Christ existed as the eternal, ever present, self-existent Jehovah. 
“Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I Am.”  John 8:58

1. Before the patriarch Abraham was born, Jesus Christ was the eternal God (“I Am”). He always existed as the great I Am.
2. As the I Am, Jesus Christ existed in the eternal present outside the limitations of time.
3. His coming was assured, for as man dwelt in time so Christ had to come in time to redeem him. (“But when the fulness of the time was come...”)

Jesus Christ was with the Father before the world was created.  
“And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own Self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.”  John 17:5

1. Jesus Christ was co-equal and co-eternal with the Father.
2.  God’s glory (“what makes God known”) was the Son’s glory. The attributes that make God known, make the Son known. His coming was assured that Christ might reveal the Father to fallen mankind.

Jesus Christ is before “everything else,” and “everything else” consists (“to be brought together, to stand, to unite parts into one whole, to be constituted”) because of Him. 
“And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.”  Col. 1:17

   1. The Son was in existence before anything else existed.
   2. Therefore it pleased God to make the Son the architect and ‘maintainer of creation. His coming was assured so that all things could be brought together in Him.

Jesus Christ is unchanging and unchangeable.
“Jesus Christ the same (“Himself”) yesterday, and to day, and for ever.”  Hebrews 13:8

1. Unchangeableness is an attribute of God ascribed to Jesus Christ. He is Himself from eternity past to eternity future.
2. His coming was assured since only He Himself could satisfy God’s wrath.

Jesus Christ is the I Am (see F.), who is the Word (see D.), the complete expression of truth and the totality of all things (see G.); the One who began all things and will end all things (see H.); the One who is now, was then, and is to come (see I.); the Almighty God (see D.).
“I Am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.”  Rev. 1:8

   1. Jesus Christ is all in all as the:
       a. Eternal, self-existent I Am (Jehovah)
       b. Word or complete revelation of God
       c. Truth
       d. The completeness of all things [good/godly].
       e. Creator and completer/ender
       f. Eternal, unchanging One
       g. All powerful God, under whom all things are put in subjection

Concl.:  In what regard or area was Jesus Christ not prepared to come?  In what sense was His power and ability lacking to effect His birth?  Was He not fully capable of performing exactly the will of the Father in His assumption of human flesh in order to live the perfect life, and to die the sacrificial death?  His preexistence proved and provided His coming.

II. THE OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECIES REVEAL THE PROMISE
     A. He would come as the seed of a woman (Gen. 3:15>Lk.1:31-35; Gal. 4:4)

     B. He would come as the seed of the Jewish race
         a. A blessing to all people (Gen.12:3; 17:19; 49:10; Num. 24:17>Matt. 1:1,2; Lk. 3:33,34; Gal. 3:8,16)

      C. He would come as the Son of God (Ps. 2:7; Prov. 30:4>Matt. 1:21,23; 3:17; Lk. 1:34,35)

      D. He would come as a sign from God (Isa. 7:14>Matt. 1:18,20,21,23; Lk. 1:26,27,30-34)
         a. A virgin conception
         b. A human birth
         c. A divine presence

      E. He would come as the God Man (Isa. 9:6>Matt. 1:18,20,21,23; Lk. 2:11)
         a. A child born (humanity)
         b. Son given (deity)
         c. Government upon His shoulder (kingly authority)
         d. His name: Wonderful, Counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (deity)

      F. He would come as the heir of David’s kingly throne (2 Sam. 7:12; Isa. 9:7>Matt. 1:1; Lk. 1:32,33)

      G. He would come at Bethlehem (“house of bread”) (Micah 5:2>Lk. 2:4)

      H. He would come in the fulness of the time (Dan. 9:25>Lk. 2:1,2)

 III. THE NEW TESTAMENT GOSPELS CONFIRM HIS COMING
      A. His birth fulfilled the plan of God (Lk. 1:28,30,37)

      B. His birth fulfilled all O.T. prophecy (Matt. 1:21,22; Lk. 1:27)

      C. The Holy Spirit was His “Father” (Matt. 1:18,20; Lk. 1:35)  

      D. He was born of a virgin (Matt. 1:16,18,20,21,23,25; Lk. 1:34; 2:7)

      E. He was God come in the flesh (Matt. 1:23)

      F. He was the promised Messiah (Matt. 1:21)

      G. He was born a king (Matt. 2:2; Lk. 1:32,33)

      H. He was announced by angels (Lk. 2:13,14)

 The Promise of Christ’s Coming Filled-Full by God!