Christ And His First Coming - A

Jack Hibbs: Jesus is the only one in all of human history that has a book written about him that not only tells you he would come to earth, but talks about his pre-existence, talks about every moment of his life, his purpose for coming, and the fact that the prophetic word of God told us this in advance.
David J: Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I'm David J. thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God's word, the Bible. Are you trying to make sense of a world that feels like it's spinning out of control? Do you see what's happening but wonder what it actually means? In Happening Now, Pastor Jack Hibbs takes today's biggest headlines and brings them into focus through the truth of Scripture. From global conflict to cultural confusion, nothing is off-limits and nothing is without biblical clarity. This isn't about fear. It's about understanding. It's about seeing the times we're living in through God's word, not just the news cycle. Each episode equips you with truth, perspective, and confidence in what God has already declared. So instead of reacting to the world, you can respond with wisdom and faith. Watch the latest episode of Happening Now at jackhibbs.com, and don't forget, there's a whole library of previous episodes you can watch at any time. That's all at jackhibbs.com. Because when you understand the times, you can stand firm in the truth. On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues his series called "The Life and Times of Jesus Christ" in a message titled "Christ and His First Coming." This is a series about who Jesus really is—not the Jesus of popular opinion, but the Jesus of the Bible. God himself who stepped into our world. In this message, we'll discover the wonder of his first coming, when God himself stepped into our world wearing human flesh. You see, religion is us reaching up from a fallen world, groping and working to find God. But Christianity is something completely different. It's God coming down to seek us out with his desire to save us, knowing that we can't possibly do enough to save ourselves. So today, Pastor Jack teaches that Jesus is the only person in all of history who not only came down from heaven, but it was promised in advance. From Genesis to the prophets, God told us exactly how to recognize his son when he comes. Now, with his message called "Christ and His First Coming," here is Pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs.
Jack Hibbs: Luke chapter 2, verse 6 says, "And so it was that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn. Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign to you: You will find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger.' And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.' So it was when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, 'Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.' And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told to them." This morning we are in part two of the series "The Life and Times of Jesus Christ," and the title this morning is "Christ and His First Coming." If you're a note-taker this morning, you ought to jot that down. Christ and his first coming. We are so often occupied, and we should be, regarding the events of Christ's rapture and Christ's second coming. But as we go through this series, as we go through a chronological unfolding of the events of Jesus Christ and his life on this earth, we look now at this title, Christ and his first coming. Specifically, we mean Christ coming into the world. Yes, that is true and we're going to look at that. But truly specifically, and catch note of this—if you get this, you'll be really smart prophetically. The official first coming of Jesus Christ literally took place near the end of his life. It took place during the last week of his life. The actual documented first coming of Christ is not the baby being born in Bethlehem, though we'll look at that this morning and though that's important. The technical first coming of Christ, if anybody should ask you on the street, the answer is when Christ came to the temple and examined the temple during his passion week. That is his last week of life on earth. When Jesus came to the temple, you remember he turned over the money changers and drove out those that made a merchandise out of God. That was officially to the nation his first coming. And of course, he wasn't recognized by the nation at his first coming. But he will be recognized by the nation at his second coming. That is his physical bodily return to earth. The first coming was his arrival to earth, yes, specifically to the nation Israel, specifically to the Temple Mount. His second coming will be a physical bodily return to the temple, to Israel, to the Temple Mount in physical form. He will bodily come to that area again. That's not the rapture; that's something very different in the second coming. But this morning we're focusing on Christ and his first coming. Of course, we are using as a theme for this entire series Colossians chapter 2, verse 9, where it says, "For in Christ all the fullness of the godhead dwells in bodily form." And that's fantastic. By introduction, you might want to jot something down. The first coming of Christ is in connection with this very important fact called the incarnation. Can you write that down? The incarnation. This is Christ or God being revealed in human flesh. The incarnation, the literally taking upon or the adopting of the physical human frame of mankind. This is God's work, that God deems that he will come to earth and clothe himself with human flesh. Definition: the incarnation. It's important that we understand that. It's important that we understand that Jesus has in fact come in human flesh. By the way, that is paramount to Christianity. If you're a Christian this morning, you must hold to the truth that not only, as we saw last week, that Christ dwelt in eternity, that he's pre-existent, but also that he is Christ who has come in the flesh and that he is incarnate. That God came in human form. 1 John chapter 4, verse 1 says, "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God." That is people in this world. If they proclaim they know Jesus, the Bible says test them. Now, did you hear what I just said? Test them. I pray it's not this church. I pray it's not you. But you and I need to be walking more and more with a godly, listen, I want to say this in the right light, with a godly critical spirit. I don't mean a bitter critical spirit. I mean a godly critical spirit. I don't mean judging one another. I mean as the Scripture says, testing the spirits. Yesterday, at the National Surfing Championships down in Huntington Beach, we went down there to watch. My daughter was missing. She's gone somewhere. Where is she? Well, we caught up with her, and I asked where she was. She said, "I was just sharing the Lord with this guy over here. I was minding my own business and he came up and approached her." She began to share the Lord with him. He was from Turkey. And he told her, "I believe in God." So they got into a dialogue about God, and it was beautiful because she said, "Well, did you know that God died for your sins?" He didn't know that. So when somebody says, "I believe in God," you need to test the spirit and see what they mean. God who? As Christians, we are so ignorantly passive when it comes to this. When somebody says, "I believe in God," we get all excited and say, "Oh, they believe in God!" Do you know when somebody says they believe in God, you should go, "Hmm, really? You believe in the eternal creator of the universe? You believe in the one who showed himself to mankind? You believe that he came and died on a cross and rose again from the dead for our justification, for our salvation?" If they say no, then test the spirits. That's where you put a big period right there and stop, because now this person needs to meet the God who died for them. Test the spirits. He says test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this we know the spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ—that is Jesus Messiah—has come in the flesh is of God. Listen, Christ is not Jesus's last name. His name isn't Jesus Christ. His name is Jesus; his mission is Messiah, Christ. Christ is simply Greek for the Hebrew Mashiach, Messiah, savior of the world. Jesus, when you say Christ, you are saying Jesus, savior of the world. That's what Christ means. So every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus came in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard is coming and already is now in the world. 2 John 1:7 warns us and says, "Many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess that Jesus has come in human flesh. This is a deceiver and an Antichrist." The incarnation of Christ is the divine act of God whereby he willingly took upon himself the form of a human being—God becoming a human. Galatians chapter 4, verses 4 and 5 says, "But when the fullness of time had come"—that means the right time had arrived—"God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law"—that is Jesus had to fulfill the law—"to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons." The awesome thing about your Christianity, friend, is that it is the descending of God from heaven to man. Religion is not Christianity. Religion is man and man-made effort reaching and groping and looking for God. That is called religion; that is the definition of religion: man groping and reaching and looking for God. But Christianity is God having sought out man. Christianity is saying that God came down out of heaven to save mankind. Religion says man can be good enough and work hard enough that somehow he'll earn God's presence or he'll become a god himself. That is religion and it's abomination to God. Christianity is not religion. Christianity says God came and visited us. God came out of heaven and sought us out. Isn't that great?
David J: You're listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. To learn more about this ministry or to catch up on some previous episodes, go to jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com. And now, let's get back to today's message. Once again, here is Pastor Jack.
Jack Hibbs: In Ezekiel chapter 36, verse 27, this is God reaching out to us. He says, "I will put my spirit in you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will keep my judgments and you will do them." Why? And how? Because he will put his spirit in us. That's God coming down among man. It's very exciting. By the way, that's a call to fellowship; it's a call to friendship by God himself in our everyday lives. But to accomplish this spirit indwelling, to accomplish this life of being with God, Christ had to come to earth. He had to come in his first coming. Christ had to be born among us and to experience this life. Look with me at our first point this morning, and that is: His coming was prophesied in advance. Concerning his coming to earth, his coming was prophesied to us in advance. Jesus Christ was and is the only personality of all human history who—and I hope there's a non-believer in here right now, I hope you're a skeptic—this ought to just jar your head. Jesus is the only one in all of human history that has a book written about him that not only tells you he would come to earth, but talks about his pre-existence, talks about every moment of his life, his purpose for coming, and the fact that the prophetic word of God told us this in advance. No one has prophecy written for them in advance. My friend, you ought to just take that to the bank. Or if you're not sure, you ought to take it to the laboratory and see if it's true. Look at this point, point number one, that he's the only one that has had prophecy given regarding him in advance. Predicted by God himself. That's right, God himself predicted that Christ would come. In Genesis chapter 3, verses 14 and 15, "So the Lord God said to the serpent, 'Because you have done this thing, you are cursed among all the cattle and more than any beast of the field. So on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust.' I love to say that. 'Satan, you shall eat dust all the days of your life, and I will put enmity, warfare—I will put warfare between you and the woman.'" Interesting. What's that all about? "And between your seed"—literally in the Hebrew, between your sperm, your offspring—"and her sperm or offspring. He shall bruise your head or crush, actually, your head." God is speaking to the serpent, which Satan had embodied. God says he, that is the seed of the woman, will crush your head, but you shall bruise his heel. You're going to afflict him in the physical life. Satan will have an opportunity to afflict Christ in this physical life, but Christ will crush Satan's head. And how was that to be? This is God's prophetic utterance regarding the incarnation of Christ way back in Genesis. God told the serpent, God told Satan, that from the offspring of the woman—this is very interesting language because it is impossible. The language that God gives here is impossible. A woman has an egg; she doesn't have the sperm. God is saying and right here in Genesis chapter 3 is a radical theological truth: that God was going to work through the woman, excluding a man—a human being, man, a male man. God was going to work in the life of mankind via a woman without a man. And the woman would become pregnant and bear forth a son who is the son of God that has the physical body of us, mankind, but whose father has been engineered by the Holy Spirit. My friend, that is the greatest miracle of all. It's incredible. And here, way back in Genesis, thousands of years ago, God said, "I'm going to do this thing. I am going to have a woman bear forth a child and he is going to crush your head." And I wonder if Satan was confused and in awe about what he must have meant by that. God was going to do this very thing. In Genesis chapter 22, verse 2 on to verse 8, God said, "Take now your son,"—he said this to Abraham—"take now your son, Abraham, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to a mountain or to a land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will show you." Genesis 22:6 says, "So Abraham took the wood, the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it on Isaac's back." Do you know any other son that had wood laid on his back? "And he took the fire in his hand"—which fire speaks of judgment—"and the knife, and the two of them went together in agreement. But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, 'My father.' And he said, 'Here I am, son.' Then he said, 'Look, here's the fire and here's the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?' And Abraham said, 'My son, God will provide for himself the lamb.'" Isn't that wonderful? The incarnate Christ is as what John the Baptist said in John 1:29: "Behold the lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world." When Abraham went to Mount Moriah—Mount Moriah today is called Golgotha, we call it Mount Calvary. It's where the face of the skull is there just on the north side of that Arab bus station, just outside the garden of the tomb, is this hilltop where Abraham was to offer up Isaac, who carried wood on his back to be laid upon that altar. And of course, God stopped Abraham from sacrificing his son, but thousands of years later, a father led his son to a hilltop. And on top that hill, the lamb of God was sacrificed for the sins of the world. "My son, God will provide for himself the lamb." And he did, didn't he? In the person of Jesus Christ. God had prophesied in advance to Abraham in Genesis chapter 22. Very exciting, very powerful. Revelation 5:12 says there, "Worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and riches." The lamb of God. In Luke chapter 1, verse 26, the Bible says now concerning this lamb, "On the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed or engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said, 'Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women.' But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying and considered what manner of greeting this was. I love the way the King James puts that. 'I'm considering what manner of greeting this is.' Can you imagine if an angel showed up? I think I guess we would do the same thing. What is this all about? Then the angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor in the sight of God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son and shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the son of the Highest, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David according to the flesh.' Mary was a descendant of David. 'And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.' Then Mary said to the angel, 'How can this be, since I have never known a man?' That's physically, 'I've never had intercourse. How can this be?' And the angel said to her, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that holy one who is to be born will be called the son of God.'" The Holy Spirit was to, by divine act, fertilize Mary's egg. We don't know how this happened; it just happened miraculously. And the Greek construction is extremely powerful, and that is: Mary was not pregnant one moment and the next moment pregnant. But not of mankind and not by human means. It's as though God snapped his finger and there, conception took place within Mary's womb. Why? Because God was going to reveal himself to mankind as an angel? No. As a deified one? No. God was going to reveal himself as a human. And he would live the life of a human and he would suffer also the weaknesses of a human as well. The Christ incarnate. Very powerful, very exciting, very life-changing.
David J: Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on Real Life Radio and his message called "Christ and His First Coming." Thanks so much for being here with us today. This message is part of Pastor Jack's series called "The Life and Times of Jesus Christ." It's a series about the real Jesus of the Bible, God in the flesh, and why knowing him more deeply changes everything. And we'll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio. America's founding wasn't just political; it was biblical. In the American Story, the Beginnings, Tim and David Barton uncover the Scripture-anchored principles that shaped this nation from day one. It's the history they don't teach anymore, and the history every American needs. Give a gift to Real Life and receive the book, plus a free kids' guide for America's 250th birthday. And check out our Faith and Freedom collection—bold apparel to wear in celebration of America. Visit jackhibbs.com or call 877-777-2346. Hey, thank you again so much for listening. And if you'd like to hear or see more of what we do here, you can always go to jackhibbs.com for all the latest on what's going to happen with this ministry. And please, if you're ever in the Southern California area, come see us at Calvary Chapel Chino Hills. We'd love to see you there in person. It has been so good to be with you today, and I pray you find yourself in the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. See you on the next episode. This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at jackhibbs.com—that's jackhibbs.com. Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in his word. We'll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.