After a lively time of praise and worship, Pastor Jonathan Fiddy spoke about Jesus Christ being the true Messiah, the One whom God had promised would come to save people from their sins.
Isaiah the prophet foretold the birth of Jesus several times, eg. Isaiah 7v14: "....the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel (which means God is with us)."
Jesus was not only a man, but was also God himself come in flesh and blood.Isaiah 9v6 says: "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given.... And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."
There are many accurate, detailed predictions about Jesus in the Old Testament prophet books of the Bible. Zechariah 9v9 predicts Jesus's triumphant entry into Jerusalem on the donkey: "See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey."
Jesus himself foretold about the temple in Jerusalem - "I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another, every one will be thrown down." (Matt 24v2). This came true when the Romans set fire to the city in AD70, the temple gold melted and the people literally removed each stone to try to get the gold.
People of many different religions are looking for a Messiah figure to come and solve all their problems, and sometimes people think that perhaps a political figure like a world leader or government would be the answer. But Jesus is God's answer to all our problems. The Bible teaches that there will be false Messiahs who will come and even perform signs and wonders, deceiving many people. In Matthew 24, Jesus warns us not to follow them as they do not come from God.
He said that when there are lots of famines, earthquakes, wars and rumours of wars, we know that Jesus is coming back very soon for His followers. He said that people would be living like in the days of Noah before the flood, when people were living any way they pleased and following man's rules rather than God's ways. They didn't listen to Noah's warnings of the flood and judgement coming, until it was too late. So today we need to be ready for Jesus's return to earth and know that we belong to Him and will be taken to be with God, and not left for God's final judgement of the earth.
The creation video projections will continue on Sunday, May 24, at 6.30 pm (note there is none on Sunday, May 17). Pastor Fiddy is available on 871975, and the website is emmanuelgospelministries.org.