by Dan L. Cox
Luke 1:26-38
The Bible itself declares that the evidence of fulfilled prophecy is the unmistakable proof of God’s inspiration of Scripture. It is clear from the words of the Prophet Isaiah that God Himself declared that the phenomenon of correctly and precisely prophesying future events is the absolute proof that the Lord inspired biblical writers to write the Scriptures that would bring forth the promises of God. No one except God can accurately predict future events in detail. Neither Satan nor his demons can predict the future.
“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).
There are promises in Luke 1:26-38 that show us we can trust God.
Jesus was promised long before his birth.
Throughout the pages of the Old Testament, God reveals a promise to His people. He said to David concerning his offspring, “I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son … Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever” (II Samuel 7:14, 16).
“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14).
When Gabriel shows up to visit Mary, it is the announcement that God’s promises are being kept.
a. “You (a virgin) will be with child and give birth to a son. (v. 31)
b. “He … will be called the Son of the Most High” (v. 32).
c. ‘The Lord will give him the throne of his father David” (v. 32).
d. “He will reign … forever; his kingdom will never end” (v. 33).
God kept his promises in Jesus – It’s very unlikely that anyone other than someone sent by God could fulfill all of the promises God made about the Messiah.
No one else other than Jesus matches up with all the promises that were made about the Messiah.
You might be saying, “Somebody else could have done that. Somebody else could have fulfilled those prophecies that were spoken thousands of years before, some hundreds of years before, a long period of time where they were giving prophecies about this Messiah. They tell us where he would be born, how he would be born, what his life would look like, how he would die, what family line he would come from.”
Dr. Peter Stoner, Mathematics professor of Pasadena Community College calculated that for one person to even fulfill eight of the prophecies of Christ, the Messiah, it would be one in ten to the 157th power. That is a big number. There is not much chance that even one person could fulfill eight of the prophecies.
There are 60 major prophecies and 270 minor prophecies in the Old Testament concerning the Messiah. Jesus fulfilled every one of them. God keeps his Word when he promises to do something.
For us, the promise of Jesus is the difference between life and death. Because he has made good on His promise concerning Jesus, God can be trusted to keep His other promises too. We can trust God to perform His promises because he promised His Son, and he kept the promise.
We can still trust God to perform His promises. He doesn’t change. He was with Mary throughout her life. He’ll surely be with us always too. Because He said he would.
Rev. Dan L. Cox is the Pastor of the United Pentecostal Church in Warsaw, Indiana. He also served as Presbyter of Section One and Editor of the Indiana Apostolic Trumpet.
