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Sermon Notes for December 15, 2024

“Keeping one’s promise…does…stand as a challenge to time, a denial of change: even if my desire were to change, even if I were to change my opinion or my inclination, ‘I will hold firm.’”
Paul Ricoeur, Oneself as Another

“A promise…is a personal undertaking that rests on the integrity and authority of the one making the promise…Wonderfully, the God of the Bible has both integrity and authority, and his promises are the backbone of the Bible’s storyline. Only a personal God can make promises, and only a sovereign God can keep promises.”
Christopher Watkin, Biblical Critical Theory

“From the opening pages of Scripture to their close, the story of God’s redemptive activity is structured by promises made and promises kept.”
Michael Lawrence

Old Testament Prophecies and Their Fulfillment in Matthew:

“But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel.”
Micah 5:2

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”
Isaiah 7:14

“A star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel.”
Numbers 24:17

1. God’s Promises are Based on His Character

“God Most High is attentive to us all every moment of every day. He always will be. Not one promise of His will fail. Not in the slightest detail. Instead, His promises will prove to be better than we expect, better by far.”
Ray Ortlund

“When you look at the Cross, what do you see? You see God’s awesome faithfulness. Nothing – not even the instinct to spare His own Son – will turn Him back from keeping His word.”
Sinclair Ferguson

2. God’s Promises Point to His Plan

“God’s…promises are not simply random good intentions. Rather, God’s promises together point to and delineate a divine plan for history – a plan to rescue a people for the praise of His glory and to effect that rescue…through a judgment that God Himself would bear on our behalf….History is heading somewhere. It’s linear. It’s developing and progressing toward an end that God has already prepared.”
Michael Lawson, Biblical Theology

3. God’s Promises are Fulfilled in Jesus

“For all the promises of God find their Yes in him.”
2 Corinthians 1:20

“You can know the glories of God from the Old Testament, so overwhelming and daunting, but in Jesus Christ they come near. He becomes graspable, palpable. He becomes above all personal, someone with whom to have a relationship. Christmas and the Incarnation mean that God went to infinite lengths to make himself one whom we can know personally.”
Tim Keller, Hidden Christmas

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
John 3:16-17