SPEAKER_04: 0:02

Welcome to the Saints That Serve Podcast, where each week your hosts dive into the crossroads of faith, culture, and the unknown. Christ is Lord, and the kingdom is now. We are the Saints that serve.

SPEAKER_01: 0:41

Want a sprite cranberry?

SPEAKER_04: 0:42

That was the cranberry alarm. Where uh I'm your host, Johnny. And I'm your host, Jarr. And this is episode 63. That's right. The episode 63 of the Saints That Serve podcast.

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And this week we're gonna be doing all kinds of fun things. But if you need prayer, make sure that you reach out to us. We pray for our followers.

SPEAKER_01: 1:11

If you need prayer, you need to pray.

SPEAKER_00: 1:13

Yeah. Wait, what? Uh, but we pray every Friday for you guys. So reach out to us. You can email us at Saints that serve at gmail.com, or you can use the link at the bottom of the description. Right? Description? Uh yeah. Yeah, description of this episode or you know, social media, if anyone's doing that anymore.

SPEAKER_04: 1:38

Uh I haven't been putting it at the bottom on the YouTube, but if you're on well, I don't know if it works. So if you're on the podcast app, it a hundred percent works. If you want to click that uh link and text us a message, it will work. Yeah. YouTube, I haven't had the chance to test it on a phone because I think it only works on a phone.

SPEAKER_00: 2:01

And since we're talking about YouTube, if you're not watching or listening on YouTube, make sure you go and, you know, just pull up a couple of videos, maybe give a couple of likes.

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And just keep clicking refresh. Just keep clicking refresh.

SPEAKER_00: 2:19

Now, our uh our last video has episode 62 has eight views. Nice. So there you go. So people are are watching on YouTube.

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You're doing it. Or clicking refresh.

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Or clicking refresh.

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Hopefully the first.

SPEAKER_00: 2:36

Yeah. You guys just do what you do. But let's talk about what we're gonna do today.

SPEAKER_04: 2:45

Before we get started on this episode, you proposed a month-long game.

SPEAKER_00: 2:50

That's what I was about to talk about. Oh, okay, great. Yeah, yeah. So, Tyler, this is your transition into explaining our Christmas game this year. That's right. Let's get some music for this as an intro. Okay. So, what we're gonna do is we're gonna play a game.

SPEAKER_04: 3:08

And this game is gonna be done throughout the entire month of December.

SPEAKER_00: 3:15

Well, no, not the entire month. It's from basically when you hear the rules to December to midnight, December 24th. Which I guess actually it would be December 25th. Just say the 11:59, December 24th. 11:59 p.m. December 24th. That's when the game is being played, from whenever you hear it to them.

SPEAKER_04: 3:39

And you can join along, but disclaimer, we are recording this episode on December 2nd. So we are gonna be playing, you are you'll be listening to it on December the, I believe, the like 8th. Hold on, I'm gonna do it. Yeah. In the comment. Yeah, perfect. Yeah, December 8th. But we are recording this on the 2nd, so we will be playing longer. Yep.

SPEAKER_00: 4:07

But what it is is basically if you hear the song Last Christmas, which was released in 1984 by George Michael and Andrew Wrigley, is his name. Wham. If you hear Last Christmas by Wham, you're out. Covers don't count. So if it's by somebody else doing the same song, that doesn't count. It has to be specifically Wham's Last Christmas. If you hear that song, be it driving in the car, it's on the radio, you're scrolling through your feed, and someone uses it as a song for their reel or their TikTok, whatever. You're in the you're at the dentist and it comes on, they use it in a TV commercial. If it is last Christmas by wham and you hear it, even if it's one second. And you recognize it. You recognize it, you're out, you lose. If one of us, Jarriss or John, makes it to December 25th without hearing Last Christmas by wham, then the the loser has to give the winner a Lego set. A Lego set, a Christmas themed Lego set.

SPEAKER_04: 5:27

Christmas. I love how Lego sets are now become the surprise. They're achievable. They're achievable and they're fun. And they're fun. So yeah. And what if we both go the whole entire month?

SPEAKER_00: 5:40

If we both win, yeah. Then we pull our money and we come up with a really cool Lego set. And then split it in half.

SPEAKER_04: 5:47

And split it in half, do a little King Solomon action. Right. And then it's an honor system. That's I mean, that's plain and simple, right? Like it's not in our system. What? I said the an honor system. Oh, honor system. Yes. It's not in our system. The system is down. I can just what if I just start singing the song right now? It wouldn't matter. It's a cover.

SPEAKER_07: 6:13

Last Christmas he gave me a hut. The very next day he gave me a it has to be George Michael.

SPEAKER_04: 6:22

Yeah. Well, it's got to be Wham.

SPEAKER_02: 6:25

She rocked out to Wham. Not a big Limp Biscuit fan.

SPEAKER_00: 6:31

Anyway, so that's the game. Um, make sure that you comment every time. If if you lose, make sure you comment and say, I made it to this date. And y'all have a head start on us. Yeah. You've got less time to abide by it. Yep.

SPEAKER_04: 6:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 6:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 6:47

Yeah. Yeah. I haven't watched one of those videos in months. Chip. Shit. Funny stuff.

SPEAKER_06: 6:54

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_04: 6:55

Well, anyways. I wanted to bring something up I noticed in your in the recording studio. Okay. Uh, this is a very visual heavy thing, so I'll describe it. So I looked over to the right, and uh, you have, you know, your TV and your two speakers, right? Yes. Did you not could you not figure out which one which went which way, so you tried both?

SPEAKER_00: 7:17

Actually, no, what happened was they're still not hooked, they're not hooked up. Oh, they're not hooked up. But they were sitting on the floor over there, and we had a recent individual move into our home needed extra storage space. So I just picked the speakers up and moved them back over here.

SPEAKER_04: 7:35

Gotcha. So what I'm seeing is one speaker turned upright and the other is upside down. And it looks like you didn't know which what which one would went which speakers. Testing the waters. You know what? Which one sounds better? Yeah. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00: 7:51

That's what I'm trying to figure out. Anyways. And that's all I have for that. And that's the episode, folks. See you next week. Christ is Lord. No. We're gonna go ahead and Tyler, we're gonna transition into our main topic.

SPEAKER_04: 8:04

Our main topic. Oh, by the way, I don't know if we said it. This is still Christmas season. Yeah, joyful season. Joyful season.

SPEAKER_00: 8:11

Here we are talking about Sprite cranberries. And jingle bells. Jingle bells. All of them. All of them. All one of them. Uh, but no, tonight we're gonna be going Christ heavy. Heavy on the Christ. And talking about the birth of Christ, the nativity, if you will. Mm-hmm. So if you are it when you're listening to this, we're already a weekend, so we should be in the second candle for the Advent season. Um but yeah, this is this is what it's all about. It's about you were gonna say the second candle of the menorah. I mean, unless you use a menorah for your Advent candles. Sure, but only for your ad then. The menorah is just like the stand, right? Yes, the candle stand. That's what the menorah is.

SPEAKER_04: 9:06

Yeah. And then you can spin your Christian dreidel.

SPEAKER_00: 9:11

Yeah. For all our heavy and Jewish-influenced friends out there listening for their festivities. I don't know. Anyways, let's get into it.

SPEAKER_04: 9:28

So, you know this Jesus guy. Tell me about this Jesus kid. Because in this story tonight, he's a kid. He's a kid. Uh I like to pray to sweet baby Jesus.

SPEAKER_00: 9:42

My wife and I just watched that. It was our first time watching it. Oh, yeah. Yep. Yep. We made it almost all the way through. There's maybe like five minutes left, but yeah. There was some she laughed at some parts. It was some funny parts. Don't you put that knife in your leg. Yeah. No, it yeah, it was a funny movie. Anyways, baby Jesus was a baby. So this this Jesus fella, he kind of, you know, came down to earth, fully God, fully man, lived a sinless life, and then took on a disgraceful death, wrongfully accused, and then was crucified and died and went into the grave, but at his death, his crucifixion, he took on the penalty of, he took on all sin of all humanity and bore it on the cross and died on our behalf to pay the payment for our sin, um, so that we could be forgiven of it. And then he rose from the grave three days later. So that's who Jesus is. But he came into the world with a humble beginning as a baby human. So yeah, a humble beginning, but people don't know this, it was prophesied hundreds of years before how he would come into the world.

SPEAKER_04: 11:21

Let me let me read this. Go for it. The Christmas story doesn't suddenly appear in the New Testament, it is the climax of a story God begins telling in Genesis. Yes. For thousands of years, God gave his people glimpses, promises, symbols, and prophecies pointing towards the coming Savior. Every nativity scene, every Christmas hymn about hope and light reflects ancient expectations. Yep. Christmas is the moment when God stepped into human history to fulfill what he had promised since the beginning. Oh, and here's Jesus, like it was promised thousands of years before.

SPEAKER_05: 12:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 12:16

So one reference for Christ's birth, or one kind of support for him being the Messiah is the genealogies. Yeah. So the book of Matthew and the Book of Luke both have a genealogy for Christ. Right. So the one in Matthew focuses heavy on the line of David, and that genealogy gives you, it doesn't give every single individual, but it breaks it up into groups of 14. And it goes from Adam to Abraham, from Abraham to David, from David to the exiles, and then from the exiles to Babylon to Christ. So it breaks it up in that order, and there is symbolism in that, but that is a verify, that is scripture that it can be used to verify Christ is a direct descendant of David, who's a direct descendant of Abraham, who's a direct descendant of Adam.

SPEAKER_04: 13:32

And the verse I have for that is um is 2 Samuel 7, verse 12 through 16, which uh is uh a forever king from David's lineage. A forever king of David's lineage, a forever king from David's lineage. Oh, okay, okay. Jesus is born in Bethlehem, David's hometown, fulfilling the promise of an eternal kingdom.

SPEAKER_00: 13:56

Yes, because that is the big thing about Christ is that he is the beginning of the resurrection, he is the resurrection and the life. I don't know if this is valid or not. I was doing a quick search on the number 14. But it could like the symbolism behind it is God's providence, possibly. Um, is a way that you could look at it. There's things like double blessing, the numbers signifies a double blessing because it's because it's seven. Yes, yeah, number seven, which which represents perfection.

SPEAKER_04: 14:38

And if you can do multiplications, you know, the number 70 is ten times the blessing.

SPEAKER_00: 14:44

Well, and here's a correlation Jacob worked 14 years to get his wife Rachel. Yeah. Because he worked for seven years expecting Rachel, but then was given Leia. And he's like, uh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 14:58

Yeah. Oh, you gave me an old lady. I got the old model. Give me the one I want. So we're so mean.

SPEAKER_00: 15:05

But then he would so then he worked another seven years to get Rachel. And then he was double blessed. He was double blessed with the 12 tribes of Judah, his 12 sons that came from those marriages. So, yeah, there's there you go. So 14, and we see in um I'm I'm actually gonna read it. Let me let me pull it up.

SPEAKER_04: 15:30

Okay. How messed up is that, though? You work seven years for something, and then his for marriage for a marriage, a woman you love, and you're like, I'm gonna marry her. And then somebody tricks you into marrying somebody different.

SPEAKER_00: 15:44

And then you're like, hey, I'm gonna trick him, and I'm actually gonna put my other daughter in there. That's my question is how did he not pick up on that? Yeah. Like, what was going on that he was was he just like intoxicated? It was his wedding day, so yeah. I'll have to go back and read it. Anyways, okay, verse 17 in chapter one of Matthew. Thus there were 14 generations in all, from Abraham to David, 14 from David to the exile to Babylon, and 14 from the exile to the Messiah. So forgive me, Adam to Abraham is not there. So it's three sets of fourteen. And once again, there's symbolism in all these numbers, but three is the number of God, it's the trinity of God.

SPEAKER_04: 16:38

So I mean, there are, you know, key numbers. I feel like one, three, seven, and six are all.

SPEAKER_00: 16:48

I guess for for Judaism, three is completion. Hmm. Three is the number of completion, which I thought seven was. But what did I say seven was?

SPEAKER_04: 17:01

I thought it was too, because you know, God on the seventh day rests, he is complete creating all things. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 17:08

That's where I kind of this is all Google searching, so I'll have to get a little deeper into that.

SPEAKER_04: 17:14

But if we need, we can have a clarification corner later on.

unknown: 17:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 17:20

Clarification corner. It's on the other side of the room of the cryptid corner.

SPEAKER_00: 17:25

Yeah. Anyways, the author chooses to leave certain individuals out in these genealogies so that he can make it three sets of fourteen. Okay. And um to get to Christ. So it's it is a literary tool being used by the author to get a point across that would be understood by a Hebrew reader or audience. Yeah. Yeah. So, but the the focus here, the focus is the Messiah. He starts the book with the genealogy and he breaks them up into three sets of 14 to get to Jesus. So hey, I know that guy. Yeah. Hey, hey.

SPEAKER_04: 18:19

So that's Do you? Do you know Jesus? Do you have him in your life? I do, actually, yes. I was talking to the audience as a few years. I have him on speed dial. What's that number? Him and I've got a 777. 777.

SPEAKER_00: 18:34

Jesus and I have an open chat thread. I have a direct line to my lord. Direct line. That might be too old lingo. Direct line. Yeah, direct line might be old lingo.

SPEAKER_04: 18:46

I got him on speed. Even speed dial is kind of old. Christ is in the chat. Christ has entered the chat.

SPEAKER_00: 18:52

Christ has entered the chat. Yeah, there you go. Now we're hip. Um. So yeah, let's so there's that. Another thing that uh Wes Huff posted this. So if you guys want to go look him up, you can, I guess. But he posted about an article. Um not an article, but like a uh an ancient manuscript called P4. Um, so I'll just read what he posted, but it says um P4, a manuscript that has the Nativity Story from Luke 175 to 2.7, was hidden away and survived not only over 1500 years of time, but one of the most systematized and widespread government attempts to destroy Christian scripture. I don't I don't know what that means, but it means they tried to get rid of God's word and it and it stood wrong.

SPEAKER_01: 19:57

It knit.

SPEAKER_00: 19:58

But yeah, interesting. That there is there is this document that is directly from the book of Luke, and it's about the birth of Christ. And it has, even though trying to be silenced by different governments, it has survived for close to 2,000 years. And for us today to use it to verify, cross-reference and verify the story. Which is what, if you didn't know this, that's what like Greek and Hebrew scholars do, our fellow listeners. They look at all of the different documents, they translate them, they they correlate them and cross-reference them to try and get the most accurate translation of the text. And they do it for other things, but predominantly the Bible.

SPEAKER_04: 21:30

Are a given. That are a given. Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Christopher Columbus. I'm just throwing them in to have a third number of completion. And um it's like you look at, you know, we these are taught, these are real people, but the number of texts that, you know, give proof that they exist or give evidence that they exist, yeah, are like maybe 50 to 60, somewhere in that range, I believe.

SPEAKER_00: 22:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 22:01

And then Jesus, who is disputed whether or not he existed or not, has thousands.

SPEAKER_00: 22:10

Yeah, there's thousands, right thousand, thousands of writings and the four conical gospels about Christ. I think for I think the next most written about historian is a Roman emperor, and he has like a hundred and something writings about himself. That's it. Yeah. Christ, Christ has way more documents about him in his short life, because he was only 33 years old when he was crucified. So he's got more about him, but then we get into what's the truth? Did he resurrect from the dead? We believe he did. Yeah. And so that's why so many writing, there are so many writings about him, because he, once again, like the intro, lived a perfect life. Everyone acknowledges Christ as at least a good prophet or a good teacher. Nobody gives him a negative, like, oh, he's an evil man. Everyone acknowledges he's good. Yeah. Christians say that he is God. So they don't just give him the acknowledgement of being good. Like, we're not like the Muslims who say he was a good prophet. We're not like the uh Jews who say, yes, he was a rabbi at the time who had a following. You know, it's not like the New Ages who's like, yeah, he's like he's a God, or he is a good teacher. He is the God. And he even makes that, he makes the I am statements in the book of John. And the which is him saying, like, I'm God, because God, his name that he gave to his people is I am that I am, and that's in the book of Genesis. Or uh Exodus, sorry. Um, I am that I am. And so when Christ comes and He's He's revealing His who He is, the people, He chooses to use in very intentional wording with I Am statements. I am the bread of life. I am living water, I am this, that, and the other. So maybe that was a little rude to say this, that, and the other. I don't know. Maybe I shouldn't have said it that way.

SPEAKER_04: 24:37

I am this, that, and the other. All right. So yeah. Well, but in his, in when we're talking about he is, not I am.

SPEAKER_00: 24:49

I am not. So those are things. So we talked about genealogies that can be read throughout the Old Testament, and then we see how the author of Matthew uses those to point to Christ. We see that there is a overwhelming amount of historical evidence and data that points to Christ being at least a good teacher, if not the son of God.

SPEAKER_04: 25:15

Right. I want to bring this up. Have you seen that video where it's like how I can't remember what group it is, but it's like how atheists or how other religions uh believe like it's a joke video of like all of the um disciples getting together. It's like, all right, let's how are we gonna fake this? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like, okay, we're gonna fake this and we're gonna lie about this. All right, and what are we gonna get out of it? Death and persecution for the rest of our lives.

SPEAKER_00: 25:45

Woo! Yeah, I've seen that. That is funny. Yeah, they're like, we're gonna make this up, and this is how we're gonna do it, and we're gonna say all this crazy stuff, and then what do we get out of doing this? We'll probably be murdered. Yeah, yeah, that's funny. Anyway, so yeah. Tons of historical documentation about this guy, Jesus. Right. What do we have as far as prophecy? So I've got some verses. Do you have do you want to go ahead and share one of yours?

SPEAKER_04: 26:13

I have Isaiah 7.14. Okay. Um, you want to pull that up? Yes, I do. Yes, I do, sir.

SPEAKER_00: 26:22

Please do. All right.

SPEAKER_04: 26:24

Since you have the production computer.

SPEAKER_00: 26:27

Isaiah 7.14? Yes, sir. Okay. Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign. The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Emmanuel.

SPEAKER_04: 26:44

The miracle of Jesus' birth shows that Christmas is divine intervention. Yes.

SPEAKER_00: 26:51

Yeah, and just to give people an idea of the Isaiah the prophet, his ministry, I believe, is over a 40-year span. So there's, I think, three different kings that are alive during his ministry's time frame, Isaiah, and a lot of it is like the impending doom of Israel and Judah. But here's the hope that God's going to give you. And so there's a lot in there about the redemption that we find in Christ.

SPEAKER_04: 27:29

What is the time span between when Isaiah was prophesizing this to when Jesus was born?

SPEAKER_00: 27:39

I'm curious. I think it's a 700-year difference. Dang. Maybe longer than that. It might be close to a thousand, but I think it's at least a 700-year difference.

SPEAKER_04: 27:50

Yeah. Pretty pretty long. It's not like he's seeing, you know, Mary pregnant, you know?

SPEAKER_00: 27:58

Yeah. Actually, it might be less than that because Judah goes into exile for 70 years. They come back. There's maybe a decade or two of them being in the land, and then there's the 400-year silence after the prophet Malachi, where God doesn't speak to his people, and then Christ is born. So maybe it's like a 500-year difference. Less 200 years, you know. Yeah. There is a pretty substantial gap between Isaiah's ministry and the birth of Christ. So, yeah. I've got a yeah, I've got a verse from Isaiah as well. Um, and it's Isaiah. This is like the one, right? Isaiah 9, 6 through 7. Not to say that any of them are less, but this one is like a key plot point. Like if you read this to a Hebrew, to a Jewish person today, they'd be like, oh, that's from the New Testament. They wouldn't be like, oh, that's yeah, Isaiah. I have that one on my list as well. You do? Okay. So it says, For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, of the increase of his government, and of the peace there will be no end on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness. From this time forth and forevermore, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

SPEAKER_04: 29:38

So that and again, Isaiah 500 years before.

SPEAKER_00: 29:43

Mm-hmm. But that's that's normally like you'll you'll see that verse read in a lot of like nativity production pageants. Um, I think that that's what um that's what they use that in the uh Charlie Brown Christmas special. Yeah. That's what what's his name? The younger. Oh man, Linus. Yeah, Linus. It's in his speech when he's telling Charlie Brown what Christmas is all about, which is pretty awesome. Yeah. Like you feel good when when cartoons do that.

SPEAKER_04: 30:16

I know that's especially like a cartoon, but yeah, it's old cartoon, but especially a cartoon that isn't traditionally considered to be religious in nature.

SPEAKER_00: 30:28

Like Pokemon when they reference Noah in their in the Bible, Noah. I remember in the Bible when Noah built an ark.

SPEAKER_04: 30:37

All right, Brock. That's the character's name who said it, but yeah, yeah. I don't know. Brock stood on the solid rock of God. Amen. Well, that's like uh he is the rock type gym leader, so what is it?

SPEAKER_00: 30:52

Is it uh there's a character, I know he's probably got his own separate video game, but he's in Super Smash. Um it's like Captain. Captain Falcon? Yeah, Captain Falcon is actually a Christian and he fights for Christ.

SPEAKER_04: 31:08

I think is his origin story. We need to make a mod of Captain Falcon and just change him to Bible Man. Bible. Bible Man is in sp in Smash. You know who is in Smash? Who? Sora. Sora. From Kingdom Hearts.

SPEAKER_00: 31:24

Oh yeah. Just a little tidbit of information for you, getting off track there. Sorry. Okay, so it's so Sakure confirms Captain Falcon's powers come from strong faith in Christ. Sakura? Sakura, yeah. Really? Is that not the the game's creator? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's funny. Yeah. So there you go. The only reason he can fight is because he believes in Jesus. And he always wins. He has his Falcon Punch. Falcon punch! Falcon kick. So funny. Alright, cool. So there we go. So Isaiah, he writes about Christ. And we see it fulfilled because Christ does come into the world and he does become the king, the Lord of Lords. A hundred percent. And he is, and when he is born, he is born of a virgin.

SPEAKER_04: 32:23

Yes, and going off of that, he was also born in Bethlehem. Correct. Uh chapter five, verse two prophesies that the Messiah would come from a small town of Bethlehem.

SPEAKER_00: 32:39

Yep. Which is um Matthew 2. Oh pulling up. Matthew 2 6 is where we see that. Matthew 2. Micah. No, no, I know Micah says it, but I'm saying in the book of Oh, I see what you're saying. Oh, in the Matthew one. Is where it correlates to the Gospel of Micah. Sorry. So I'll go ahead and read it. I'll read verses one through six. Uh after Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him. When King Herod heard this, he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he called, when he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them, Where the Messiah was to be born. In Bethlehem in Judea, they replied, for this is what the prophet has written. But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah. For out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people, Israel. So that is what we see in Matthew. And we actually talked about the Magi last Christmas. Yes.

SPEAKER_04: 34:12

So if you want to hear more about that, roll on back to episode number.

SPEAKER_03: 34:18

We're gonna pull it up for you right now. Yeah, give me a second. Uh-huh. The Saints that serve podcast. One year ago.

SPEAKER_00: 34:28

One year ago is when we did this show. A year ago. Last Christmas we talked about magi. And now you can listen in the library because we have a year long of shows, and they're all pretty special. That doesn't count.

SPEAKER_04: 34:52

It's a cover. It's a cover. I one would say it's rewritten. Uh episode 16.

SPEAKER_00: 35:00

Episode 16. We talk about the wise men. That's right. Or the magi. Actually, we make that distinction. Not the mummy. Not the mummy magi. It's the Bible Magi. That's right. Heck yeah. Anyway, so Micah chapter 5, verse 2. No, Magi. Magi chapter. Right, right. Sorry. Uh verse 2 says, But you, Bethlehem, Ephratha, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.

SPEAKER_04: 35:40

And again, I'm not sure if you can call this from memory, like off the top of your head, but what is the time frame from when Micah said that to the birth of Jesus?

SPEAKER_00: 35:50

Micah's ministry, I actually have to look at that. I don't remember. This is a point I won't I want to keep making several hundred years before Christmas.

SPEAKER_04: 36:00

And that is somebody else saying something about Christ. This isn't Isaiah. You know, this is somebody completely different. Again. So it's not like, oh, you can't use the excuse of, oh, that person was just crazy, or they guessed, you know, they guessed and got lucky. Yeah. You know, no, this is somebody else in a completely different time frame, hundreds of years before, saying things that are fulfilled.

SPEAKER_00: 36:27

Yeah. I'm just pulling this on the internet because I don't remember where I put my personal one, but I do have a chart of the different prophets and and kings of Israel and uh Judah and like the time roughly of when they were around. But Micah was roughly 740 BC to 700 BC, was his roughly his ministry. And uh Isaiah's around that same time. It's 745 to 685 according to this chart. Which we can post the link in the show notes. Um, actually, I'll find my chart and I'll post it to our Instagram.

SPEAKER_04: 37:16

Not well star. See it. Not well star, what their app is called my chart. Oh to manage your health. No, no. Everything when you go to the doctor.

SPEAKER_00: 37:26

The chart that I made that kind of gives the timeline of the Old Testament kings and prophets. But if you want to, you can go to this website. It's called Bible Chronology Timeline.com. There you go. And that will be in the description as well. Heck yeah. So these guys are they're writing about Christ hundreds of years before Christ comes into the world. And the authors of the gospels are showing you like, hey, Jesus wasn't just like born out of nothing and into nothing and then like got a good following. Yeah. Like some people would say. Like the early Gnostic teachings, right after Christ, they were arguing that some were arguing that Jesus was just a normal guy until his baptism, and then the Holy Spirit came upon him. And then another argument was Jesus was never physical, a physical mortal man. He was always a spirit, and his death on the cross was just a show. Wait, who's people? These are this is a Gnostic belief system. Okay. And and so because for the Gnostics, it's like the physical is evil or the physical is is pointless. Uh you you just need to focus on the spiritual. And so from that came a lot of like bad teaching, but one of them was just contradicting what Christ said about himself, which is that he was fully God and fully man, and they said that he wasn't. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 39:07

So and if he wasn't, then this would all be pointless. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 39:13

But God's giving prophecy to men of Israel hundreds of years before Christ comes to explain exactly what to look for when he comes. And here Christ comes and he fulfills all these prophecies that are given about him. And oh Lord, he's coming. Yep. And nobody picks up on it until after resurrection.

SPEAKER_08: 39:40

Oh, wait, is that the guy that they're talking about?

SPEAKER_04: 39:44

Yep. Yes, Billy. He's in the sky. We see him raising up into the sky. Yes, that's the guy.

SPEAKER_00: 39:51

That's the guy. Um, but I do think it's important because Christ brings that up: that, you know, like without the spirit. These things are hard. And the the wisdom and the truth of the gospel is foolishness to man. You need the Spirit of God to be able to have the revelation. Because to man, sin is not sin. You know, without the understanding of truth that comes through Christ, you then then sin's just normal. You know, we normalize it. And I think there's people that would argue, like, oh, but like genocide's bad or murder's bad, right? But most of the people that would be saying that are in a society that holds values that are traditionally coming from a God-fearing mindset. When society deteriorates enough from away from God, then a lot of evil is tolerated. I mean, look at where our society is right now. Yeah. We've fallen away from God and we tolerate abortion.

SPEAKER_04: 41:08

Right.

SPEAKER_00: 41:09

And that's murder.

SPEAKER_04: 41:10

Yeah. You know, like you're killing human life. You're putting a stipulation on which murder is okay and which isn't. And that's just not okay.

SPEAKER_00: 41:20

Well, but we're even to the extreme where now there's two political parties in the United States. And there are people in both of those, both sides in those political parties who would be all right with the other side dying or or being murdered. Yeah. And I'm not saying I'm not doing a generalization. I'm not saying like generally, both people on these sides. It is a smaller minority of the group, but it's just to say they are there. There are people there that have they've deteriorated away from fear of God so much so that murder, which everyone would agree is bad, is now like, well, depends on the situation. Right. It it's not bad all the time.

SPEAKER_04: 42:05

Yeah. And these are people who are supposed to be representing us and leading us. And well, but I'm just talking about just I know, and yeah, you know, the blanket statement. Yeah, the hypocrisy of the fact that, you know, murder's wrong, but we can oh, but that guy is okay. He can die.

SPEAKER_00: 42:22

Yeah. And the scripture gives an example. I mean, in the Old Testament and the book of Genesis, talks about Sodom and Gomorrah, and God brings judgment on those cities because of how wicked they've become, where they tolerate murder and and abuse of others, and it's so godless that it would be unjust for God not to end those practices. And so he does. But for his love for Abraham, he delivers Abraham's nephew Lot out of the city. So, you know, you do see God extend grace towards people, but it the his grace does not take away from his justice. They are they're both beautiful and delivered perfectly, right? Like God is a God of grace, but he's also a God of justice. And so that's and so coming back around to New Testament, that's why we need Christ. Because God is going to be just, he's going to exact justice on evil, but he also loves humanity and he wants to have his desire is for humanity to be with him, to know his love and for him to love them and for them to love him. And so, in order for him to be able to have that with humanity, he has to extend grace. And grace is not like a, you know what, you did all this evil stuff, I forgive you. You're good. Like there's a cost. And so I actually heard someone talking about this, and it was a good example, but forgiveness is not free. Yeah. It costs somebody something. Yes. And so if there's wrong that's happened, if you give me, if you let me borrow your truck.

SPEAKER_01: 44:20

No.

SPEAKER_00: 44:21

Your brand new truck. Absolutely not. And I run it off the road and that's what I'm afraid of. And total it, two things will happen. I will either be expected to pay for the truck or you'll forgive me. But at the cost of the truck. But at the cost you are out of a truck. Yeah. So that's what forgiveness is. Uh the damage is already done. It's just the party who's been damaged is choosing to deliver the guilty party from judgment. And so God forgiving us, it's still the damage is still there. The problem is still there. The sin has happened. But God is choosing to give us an opportunity to get out of that damage we caused and the punishment that comes with it by extending his forgiveness through grace through his son Jesus Christ, who pays the price. So that's the that's the important deal, right there. Is we gotta understand that what sin is, which is disobedience to God. Yes. Defiance against God. And then we go from there. Okay, is it acceptable to continue to defy God? And if it is, are we willing to pay the price of defying the creator of the universe? Uh and if we're not okay with that, then we got to figure out how to solve this. And the only way to solve it is Christ. God makes that point. Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the light. None come to the Father except through me. So there's only one way to receive forgiveness from our sins and to be in communion with God, and it's Jesus. So I've got one more Old Testament prophecy.

SPEAKER_03: 46:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 46:27

And it is Hosea 11:1. And it says, uh, well, it comes from Hosea 11.1. Out of Egypt I called my son. So if we go to Matthew 2.

SPEAKER_03: 46:43

Matthew 2.

SPEAKER_00: 46:45

Gotta go back to it. And we look at verse 15. It says, I'll start in 13 actually. So Matthew 2, 13, when they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. Get up, he said, take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him. So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night, and left for Egypt. When they stayed until the death of Herod, and so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet, out of Egypt I called my son. So there you go. There you go. And Hosea is written. Where is Hosea? Where is he? I don't see him on the jar.

SPEAKER_08: 47:56

He's not there. Where'd he go?

SPEAKER_00: 47:59

I feel like it's during the same time as Jeremiah, but I'm not seeing him. Oh, here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Uh Hosea was 755 to 725 BC. For those who didn't know what I was talking about. So quite a time before Christ came into the world. So yeah. That's what I have. For specifically Christ's birth and Old Testament prophecy that speaks of it.

SPEAKER_04: 48:36

So do you get anything else? Um, not prophecy-wise. Okay. I've got uh one last thing to kind of read that will kind of start winding down and closing us out on this episode. Okay. It says Christmas is not a random event, it is the fulfillment of promises God made for centuries. Every detail in the nativity echoes a prophecy, a pattern, or a promise. The manger is the meeting place of prophecy and fulfillment. Christmas declares God keeps his word, God comes close, and God brings salvation. Praise the Lord.

SPEAKER_00: 49:16

Do you have anything else to add on top of that? Um, in Deuteronomy, this isn't specifically the birth of Christ, but in Deuteronomy um 18 verses 15 through kind of verses 15 through 18 or 19. Basically, Moses is saying, A prophet will come like me to be over you, and and you can see that Christ is this great prophet who delivers because the big thing about Moses is he brings the Ten Commandments, He brings the Word of God. Yes, and through him, God establishes Israel or delivers Israel out of bondage, right? And we see the parallels of Moses to Christ, where Christ brings the Word of God, he is the Word of God, and He delivers sinners out of bondage from sin, creating the new covenant through Christ. So that's the parallel that we see. So not necessarily the birth of Christ, but any parallel pointing to Jesus is a great parallel. So yeah, that's what I've got. Super excited for Christmas. We're doing a Nativity uh study with the boys leading up to you know Christmas. So, and and my mom also got a little Nativity Lego building thing. So it will be like the manger scene when we're completed, but it's individual Lego sets. So each day is a Lego set thing. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, but it builds little mini figures of the Nativity.

SPEAKER_04: 51:07

And if I hear the song Last Christmas by Wham, I don't get to earn that Lego set.

SPEAKER_00: 51:13

Correct. You lose the Lego set.

SPEAKER_04: 51:16

Yeah, it's that Lego set. You're gonna take it from your children and give it to me if I win.

SPEAKER_00: 51:20

And we'll do a um a post on Instagram and Facebook Christmas morning, basically asking who lost and who won. So if you're if you're following us on either of those, be on the lookout for us so you can comment if you lost or won. Uh, if you're not following us on Instagram or Facebook, you should totally go do that. Please do. That way you can be a part of the fun. Because we have fun here. That's right. We're we're out here having fun. So yeah, that's all I've got. Looking forward to next week where we'll talk about more Christmas stuff. But I hope that this helps you guys understand that Jesus is the reason for the season. He was prophesied hundreds of years before he came into the world, and his purpose of coming into the world was to redeem sinners and bring them back into the fold of God.

SPEAKER_04: 52:12

And this might be hard to hear, but that's you. You're a sinner.

SPEAKER_00: 52:16

We're all sinners. We all fall short when it comes to earning our place in God's presence. And so we need someone to come in and be a mediator for us to deliver us. And that's who Jesus is. So yeah. And if you want to argue that, or if you have any questions about that, you should totally reach out to us. And then we'll have you on the show remotely. Yeah. But uh, all right, well, that's all I got. So Christ is Lord, and the kingdom is now. We are the saints that serve.

SPEAKER_07: 53:22

Last Christmas, you gave me your heart.

SPEAKER_06: 53:27

I'm doing Halo, and you're doing Christmas.