Beyond the Weekend: GOD IS...
People have a lot of thoughts about God. Some say he is angry and vengeful. Some say he is a buddy or best friend. But what does Scripture tell us about God?
Understanding the character of God matters. It changes how we meet him in our everyday lives. It changes how we understand the world around us, and his work in it. And it changes our prayer life and how we talk and hear from him. Understanding the character of God leads us to living lives of obedience and worship.
Join Pastors Aaron Buer, Jeff Manion and Brad Holmes in our 10-week series GOD IS ..., a study on the identity and character of God, and learn how your faith can grow as you know God better.
Jesus in Isaiah
Read: Isaiah 9:1-6 Listen: Isaiah 9
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6
This year, we look for Jesus in the Old Testament to see how God's plan always included Jesus saving us from our sins. This month, we will look at the message of Isaiah and see how it points to Jesus saving his people and ultimately reigning victorious.
Isaiah is one of the most well-known prophets in the Old Testament. His writings have a familiar ring for Jesus’s followers. Isaiah’s prophecies point to God’s grace and love through the coming of Jesus so much that multiple scholars refer to it as the Gospel of the Old Testament. Isaiah serves the Lord during the final years before Israel’s Northern Kingdom fell to Assyria (around 722 BC). God sends Isaiah to remind the Southern Kingdom that God promised to protect his people from anyone and anything if they stand firm in their faith and follow his commands. Ultimately, the Southern Kingdom doesn’t stand firm in their faith and falls to the Babylonians in 586 BC. Yet, Isaiah’s words remind them God is still at work on their behalf.
The word servant repeatedly appears throughout Isaiah’s writings. He shows how Jesus will work diligently as a servant to accomplish God’s purposes despite the many challenges and difficulties Jesus will face (Isaiah 52:13). Isaiah points to Jesus’s birth and what his reign will look like (Isaiah 9:6-7). Isaiah also reveals Jesus’s coming as the Messiah, the anointed one who will redeem his people. The Messiah will reign and bring blessings to the earth (Isaiah 11:1-16), bring light to those in spiritual darkness (Isaiah 9:1-2) and will show himself worthy through suffering (Isaiah 53:10-12). We see all of these clearly in the life of Jesus as recorded in the New Testament.
TODAY: As you read this month, ask God to open your eyes to all the ways Isaiah points to Jesus. Thank God for this beautiful work that revealed Jesus’s coming hundreds of years before his birth.
JESUS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT:
Read Isaiah 1-2. Highlight anything that points to Jesus. Consider Jesus’s role in the last days.
