Scriptures: Jeremiah 30:4-11, Acts 2:25-35, Luke 24:44, Psalm 16:10, 34:19, 41:9, Matthew 1. God promised King David that he would always have a descendent upon the throne over God’s covenant people. Matthew 1 gives us the genealogy of Jesus, confirming he’s a descendant of King David. We established in a previous lesson that this forever king comes from the stump of Jesse, King David’s father, implying that the Anointed One (Messiah) would be not only a descendant of David but a new David. God spoke through the prophet Jeremiah of the final restoration of Israel at the end of the age, saying, “They will serve the Lord their God and David their king,…
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Day 3 – The Anointed One
Scriptures: Isaiah 11, 61, Zechariah 4, Acts 10:38, 2 Corinthians 5:20 Christ is not the last name of Jesus Christ, it is the Greek word for “Anointed One,” which in Hebrew is Messiah. So when we say Jesus Christ, we’re talking about Jesus, the Anointed One, the Messiah of the Jews. To be anointed is to have olive oil poured out or smeared on your head. In the Old Testament, the priests and temple objects were anointed with oil, as were kings. Being anointed with oil symbolized being chosen by God and set apart for a specific assignment. Oil is symbolic of the Holy Spirit who is needed to accomplish…
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Day 2 – The Branch
Scriptures: Isaiah 11:1, Jeremiah 33:14-18, Zechariah 3:8-9, 6:9-13, Hebrews 7 Isaiah 11 describes the righteous ruler who will be anointed with the Holy Spirit to rule Israel and bring peace to the earth as the Branch. “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit” (Isaiah 11:1). The Branch comes from the stump of Jesse, King David’s father. Not only is Jesus descended from King David, as we see in Matthew 1, but he is an entirely new branch that precedes David because he comes from the stump of David’s father, Jesse. What does that mean? In scripture, cutting down a tree is a…
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Day 1 – The Living Word
Scriptures: John 1:1-18, John 5:19-40, John 17:1-8, 20-26 This is the first in a series of devotions designed to draw you closer to Jesus as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy during the season of Advent, but can be used anytime as an “Emmaus Encounter with Jesus.” It was on the road to Emmaus that Jesus revealed how he fulfilled the law, writings of the prophets, and the psalms. I encourage you to read the scriptures passages before each post so you can make the connections yourself by simply clicking on each reference which will take you to that passage. Each devotional ends with a worship response because the goal…
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Lesson 3: How God Creates a New Thing
In lesson 2 we learned that at the end of the Festival of Shelters, the Torah scroll is rolled back to the beginning, to Genesis 1. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” In the story of creation, we see the pattern for how God creates. When God made a nation for himself, Israel, he followed the same pattern. When Christ comes again, he will establish his kingdom from Israel and restore the world to God’s original plan. God is always creating something new. The Bible not only tells us about the earth’s beginning and Israel’s beginning, but our new beginning in Christ. God is Light and…
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Lesson 2: God is Our Shelter and Provider
In lesson one we learned about how Jesus fulfilled Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, as a sacrifice for our sin so that our sins could be removed from us. We all have turned away from God to go our own way, so God sent his Son, born of a virgin, to redeem us and give us a new beginning with him. Because God’s only Son voluntarily paid the penalty for our sin on the cross, our sin is nailed to the cross and our old self dies as we repent of sin and receive God’s forgiveness through the shed blood of Jesus. We are then reborn by the Holy…
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Lesson 1: How God Gives Us A New Beginning
The Bible makes an astounding promise: “Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:17-18). Contrary to the American dream, we don’t work hard to get this new life through our own effort. It is a gift from God. Why would he give us a new life as a new person? Because he loves us so much that he’s willing to do for us what we could never do for ourselves, which is to make ourselves righteous in his sight.…
