The Gospel of Isaiah

By David R. Ferguson     I’m sure every one of you have heard of the four gospels, The Gospel of Matthew, The Gospel of Mark, The Gospel of Luke, and The Gospel of John. But believe it or not, it really is true that there was another gospel account of the life and death of our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ. As amazing and as wonderful as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are, this additional gospel of Jesus Christ is arguably even more amazing, for it was written 750 years before Jesus was born! You heard me correctly. There’s a prophetical book in the Old Testament that’s so declarative, so prescient, and so detailed regarding the coming life, mission and death of Jesus that it rightfully can be called The Gospel of Isaiah.     Many people are familiar with Isaiah Chapter 53 and its graphic description of a suffering Messiah, and we’ll be spending much of our time in it this morning, but that’s not the only place in Isaiah Jesus’ life is so vividly portrayed. Isaiah is chockfull of messages regarding our Savior, and Jesus had to fulfil every single one of these. And that’s absolutely what He did.     As was mentioned earlier, this book was written some 750 years before Christ came into this world as a Baby born of the Virgin Mary. Think about that for as moment. Just how difficult was this going to be for Jesus to fulfill a prophecy that demanded He be born of a virgin! You can search everywhere but you won’t find predictions about anyone else who was to bring us to God who was going to be born of a virgin. In fact, there are many religions around the world, but not a single one of them had anything written about their leaders before they were born. Not a single one. All other religions were manmade. Mohammad, Confucius, Buddha or any other man or being were self-proclaimed by man. They have nothing written about their coming as God with man. Only Jesus fits this bill, and only Jesus was spoken of even before He was born.     The elements of the gospel of Jesus Christ were foretold by Old Testament Prophets. It was prophesied that there would be the coming of the Messiah. Concerning the establishment of His coming Kingdom, much was written. It was this fact of the establishment of a coming Kingdom that the Jews at the time of Christ grasped onto the most, and pictured in their minds that the much anticipated and longed for Messiah would be a great warrior King like David of old who would overthrow militarily the yokes of the Roman Empire that had enslaved them, and this warrior King would establish a new Israel who would rule the world from Jerusalem. But what God had in mind, and what the expectations are of what man desires, rarely, if ever, are the same thing.

- David R. Ferguson preaches for the Mentor Church of Christ in Mentor, OH.  He may be contacted through the congregation's website: http://mentorchurchofchrist.com/ or davidferguson61@yahoo.com