Zechariah (Program #15) – The Prophecies of Encouragement (6)

We all have our own favorite verses throughout the Bible. For many of us, some of our favorite verses are found in pages of the Old Testament. And we tend to avoid the Old Testament often in terms of its bigger meaning because it does seem to be somewhat veiled and obscure. However, the real meaning of all of our verses in the Old Testament match that of the revelation in the New Testament. And, that is that at the heart of God’s desire is an economy. In the life study of Zechariah, God’s economy is summarized: “The center of God’s economy is to have a Body to express Christ. Eventually, this Body will be Christ’s Bride to match Him as His counterpart and to come down to earth with Him to carry out the final step of God’s economy. Today, the world situation is ready for His coming, but the Lord has not yet gained His counterpart. Therefore, He has no way to come back. He is still waiting.”

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Luke (Program #12) – The Ministry of the Man-Savior in Galilee (3)

In Luke’s gospel, we find the account of just how the Lord Jesus called and attracted many of His disciples and followers.  With some He performed mighty miracles, yet with others it was simply His word or His sympathetic care that captivated them and drew them out of whatever held them to follow Him and serve Him absolutely.  What about you?  Are you waiting for a miracle?  Or is the realization of what He has already done or even the promise of His sweet presence enough to cause you to want to give up everything and follow Him?

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Zechariah (Program #14) – The Prophecies of Encouragement (5)

Any careful consideration of the history of God’s people, Israel, reveals that for much of that history, Israel has suffered. Paul, even spoke in Romans, of Israel’s heart being hardened until the age of the Gentiles will be fulfilled. We know that, that fulfillment is complete at the Lord’s second coming, so what about Israel after that time? Well the prophet Zechariah is full of encouraging prophecies concerning the eventual household salvation of Israel at the Lord’s return especially in chapter 12. Listen to Zechariah in one of the sweetest verses in all of Scripture: “And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and of supplications; and they will look upon Me, whom they pierced; and they will wail over Him with wailing as for an only son and cry bitterly over Him with bitter crying as for a firstborn son.”

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Luke (Program #11) – The Ministry of the Man-Savior in Galilee (2)

After passing through a full and thorough preparation, and even an inauguration, the Lord Jesus was ready to begin His earthly ministry.  He does so by quoting from the Old Testament pages of Isaiah, speaking words of grace to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, ushering acceptable year of the Lord, the Jubilee.  Well, these words were amazing to the Jews of Galilee as they are to us today.  But as we will see today and the coming days as we continue on this life study from the gospel of Luke, His living and His ministry became a living portrait of this Jubilee and in Him, all we as the real captives and the real blind ones find our freedom and our sight.

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Zechariah (Program #13) – The Prophecies of Encouragement (4)

In the Old Testament book of Zechariah, we are given extraordinary revelations of the New Testament Christ. We see Him as the Shepherd coming in an intimate and loving way to care for His scattered flock. We also see Him being rejected and even crucified for our redemption. But one of the most striking views of Christ in Zechariah is as the coming Triumphant Warrior to fight against Anti-Christ, the embodiment of Satan and to rescue God’s people, Israel, from their destiny on this earth, the war of Armageddon.

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Luke (Program #10) – The Ministry of the Man-Savior in His Human Virtues with His Divine Attributes in Galilee (1)

The Bible is full of inspiring stories recounting the miracles performed by the Lord Jesus during His earthly ministry.  Surely this demonstrates Christ is none other than the Son of God.  Yet it’s interesting that many of the touching stories are the ones not demonstrate not His divinity but His humanity.  It is His humanity that attracts us and causes us to love Him.  The gospel of Luke is particularly meaningful in this regard for in Luke more than any other book of the Bible, we see Christ as the Man-Savior.

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Zechariah (Program #12) – The Prophecies of Encouragement (4)

The universe that God so marvelously created is full of wonderful things for us, His creatures to experience. For all the beautiful scenes He created for us to enjoy, He gave us eyes to see. To hear the birds sing, He gave us ears to hear. And even for us to ponder the mysteries all around us, we have minds that can learn and understand. But what about contacting the most marvelous thing of all, God Himself? If we attempt to touch God using any of these faculties, no doubt we will be sorely disappointed. Because to touch the spiritual and divine person of God, we must use the faculty created in man uniquely for that purpose. And the Old Testament prophet, Zechariah give us a clear verse telling us what that part of man is.

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Luke (Program #9) – The Preparation of the Man-Savior with His Divinity (8)

Here is a story we all know quite well – the story of an angel paying a visit to a humble virgin in a lowly city in a despised region.  “In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin engaged to a man named Joseph of the House of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.  And he came to her and said, Rejoice, you who have been graced!  The Lord be with you.” (Luke 1:26-28) “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus.  He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to Him the throne of David His father, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:31-33)  This is the declaration of the arch angel Gabriel in the first chapter of the gospel of Luke.  But it is just one of many pronouncements concerning the preparation of the Man-Savior Jesus as recorded in Luke’s gospel.  We will look at several of these marvelous declarations today.

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Zechariah (Program #11) – The Prophecies of Encouragement (3)

Zechariah is one of those hidden treasures in the Old Testament. As a book of prophecy it does seem mysterious and rather vague to many readers of the Bible. But as with all Scripture, with the Spirit’s illumination and the right keys to unlock our understanding, it reveals marvelous treasures. The main treasure in Zechariah is how compellingly and marvelously Christ is revealed. We see Him as the Shepherd of God’s flock in chapters 11 through 13, as He comes in, in an intimate way to feed and supply God’s suffering people. But we also see how this One was fully rejected, attacked, judged and ultimately crucified as well.

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Luke (Program #8) – The Preparation of the Man-Savior with His Divinity (7)

Following the account of the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist in Luke chapter 3, there are two very interesting items. First of all, the genealogy of Jesus – beginning with Jesus and working its way back to God. The second is the temptation or the testing of Jesus – forty days in the wilderness with Satan directly tempting the Lord, yet Jesus in His perfect humanity, fully withstanding every temptation and thereby defeating God’s enemy. But it’s interesting that the Lord was led there to face that temptation by the Holy Spirit. We will look at both the genealogy of Jesus and His passing this test of tests in today’s life study of Luke.

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