A Pastor’s Perspective

“The Correct Address” by Mike Hill, pastor of Calvary Chapel Aberdeen (mjhill@ida.net)

  Most embarrassing moment?  I can actually think of a few situations when my face felt warm and rosy with embarrassment.  When I was in a hurry, looking down at the floor as I pushed open the door to the restroom, I glanced around my surroundings.  I thought, “This doesn’t seem right.  Where are all the urinals?  What’s the deal with all the extra trashcans?  I’ve never seen a men’s restroom so clean!”  Then it dawned on me—wrong address.  I had unknowingly entered the women’s restroom!  I sprung out of there like a cheetah.  Good thing there were no ladies around.

Through over 300 prophecies in the Old Testament, God provided the correct address for the whole world to locate the Savior.  Fascinating, the odds of just 8 of those 300+ prophecies related to Christ’s first coming being fulfilled is estimated as a probability of 1 in 10²⁸.  Someone may ask, “What’s so impressive about that?”  Let’s say you take 8 prophecies such as Micah 5:2, Zechariah 9:9, Zechariah 11:12, Zechariah 11:13, Zechariah 13:6, Isaiah 53:7, Isaiah 53:9, and Psalm 22:16.  These particular prophecies outline such details as Christ’s birthplace, Palm Sunday, His betrayal for 30 pieces of silver, and the suffering He experienced upon the Cross.  For these prophecies to be fulfilled in one person is as likely as covering the state of Texas with silver dollars, 2 feet deep, and then marking one silver dollar and placing it in the pile. Then, taking a second person (blindfolded) and giving them one chance to pick the correct silver dollar, and having him find it on the first attempt.  And that was for only 8 of the 300+ prophecies!  What can we make of this?  Only God knows the future and He alone provided us with one address to our salvation.

For instance, let’s take Micah 5:2.  This amazing prophecy predicts the specific address of the Messiah’s home town in Bethlehem 700 years before Jesus was born.  It says, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.”  Notice that the prophecy doesn’t say, “Galilee” or “Nazareth” or even “Jerusalem” as many people presume (Alma 7:10).  The Bible never presents Jerusalem as a “land” but as a city and never presents Jerusalem and Bethlehem synonymously but distinguishes between these two unique cities (Matthew 2:1).  If a person is following a Jesus that was born in Jerusalem, then he or she has the wrong address and is following the wrong Jesus.  The Jesus of the Bible was born in Bethlehem just as was foretold by God through His prophet Micah.

Notice also the phrase “whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting” (Micah 5:2b).  This means Jesus’ birth was not His beginning.  Before His birth in Bethlehem, Jesus eternally existed as the Second Person of the Trinity (John 17:4, 24).  The Bible presents Jesus as the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. (Revelation 22:13).  That is, from the very beginning, Jesus was there. There was never a time when the Jesus did not exist.

And, before Bethlehem, Jesus was the Creator of all things (John 1:1-3, 14; Colossians 1:16-17).

Do you have the correct address to the only One who can save you from your sins?  If you enter a room or a house with the wrong address, you may simply suffer minimal embarrassment.  However, if you arrive at the wrong address concerning your salvation, you will suffer eternal consequences.