Session one of a three-week study on the birth of Christ — from a riddle no one could
answer, through a royal family cut to a dead stump, to a teenage girl who looked God in the face and said
yes.
Companion to:Foretold: The Birth of Christ, Message 1Released: August 30Part 1 of 3 · Part 2 (Sept 6) · Part 3 (Sept 13)
“Now the Bereans were more noble… they received the word with all eagerness, examining the
Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” — Acts 17:11. That verse is the spirit of this whole
series. Don't take the sermon's word for it. Don't take mine. Open the book and see if it's so. The
birth of Jesus was never just a moment — it was a landing, at the far end of a runway God had
been building for more than a thousand years. This week we trace the promise from a riddle no one could
answer, through a royal family cut down to a dead stump, through four hundred years of silence, all the way
to a young girl in a nothing town whose yes changed everything.
See It in the Text (read aloud, together)
Psalm 110:1 — the riddle Jesus used to stump the experts (see also Mark 12:35–37).
Isaiah 11:1 — the stump of Jesse.
Genesis 49:10 — the scepter that must not depart from Judah.
Numbers 24:17 — a pagan prophet sees a star, “but not now, not near.”
Malachi 4:5–6 and 3:1 — the last words of the Old Testament, and then silence.
Luke 1:5–25 — an old priest, and the silence breaks.
Luke 1:26–38 — a young girl, and the bravest yes ever spoken.
Every verse this message quotes
The recording doesn't stop to read the citations
aloud — so here they all are, in order. Open your Bible and check every one. See if it's so.
Psalm 110:1
Mark 12:37
Isaiah 11:1
Genesis 49:10
Numbers 24:17
Luke 1:17
Malachi 4:5–6
Malachi 3:1
Luke 1:18
Luke 1:20
Romans 1:3
Luke 1:28
Luke 1:29
Luke 1:30
Luke 1:31
Luke 1:32–33
2 Samuel 7:12–13
Daniel 7:14
Luke 1:34
Luke 1:35
Luke 1:36
Luke 1:37
Luke 1:38
Deuteronomy 25:5–6
Warm Up
Think of a promise someone kept to you after a long, long wait — or one that got broken. What did the
waiting do to you while you waited?
When you picture “the Christmas story,” what's the first image that comes to mind? Hold that picture —
we're going to take it apart and rebuild it on something far bigger.
The Big Idea
The birth of Jesus was never just a moment. It was a landing — at the far end of a runway God
had been building for more than a thousand years. This week we trace the promise from a riddle no one could
answer, through a royal family cut down to a dead stump, through four hundred years of silence, all the way to
a teenage girl in a nothing town who looked God in the face and said yes.
Dig In
The riddle. In Psalm 110, David — the greatest king Israel ever had — calls the coming Messiah
“my Lord.” Jesus asks: if the Messiah is David's son, how is he also David's Lord?
(Mark 12:37). Why can't the Messiah just be one or the other? What kind of person could be both a
descendant and a superior? (Hold that question all three weeks — it gets answered next Sunday.)
The dead stump. Isaiah calls David's royal family a stump — firewood. By the time our
story opens, no son of David had reigned in ~600 years, and an Idumean named Herod sat on the throne.
Where in your own life does a promise of God look like a dead stump right now? What does it do to
your faith when the evidence says the promise failed?
Two questions, two outcomes. Zechariah asks “How shall I know this?” and is struck silent
(Luke 1:18–20). Mary asks “How will this be?” and is answered (Luke 1:34–35). They sound almost
identical. What's the difference between the two questions — and which one are you more prone to ask
God?
The yes. Mary knew what an unexplained pregnancy could cost her — her marriage, her name, in
that culture in principle even her life. She said, “Let it be to me according to your word” (Luke
1:38). What is God asking you to say yes to that you can't yet see the cost — or the outcome —
of?
The Honest Questions (see if it's so)
What is “Shiloh” in Genesis 49:10? Is that a name, a place, or the Messiah?
Why do Matthew and Luke give Jesus two different family trees that don't match after David
(Matthew 1 vs. Luke 3)? Is that a contradiction?
Was Mary really a teenager? Where does that come from — the Bible, or tradition?
(Full answers in the Leader's Notes below.)
Bring It Home
God kept a thousand-year promise, right on time, to the town, to the tribe, to
the day — and he did his best work in the place that looked the most impossible. He specializes in
growing life out of stumps. Where do you need to hear that this week? And where is he waiting for your
let it be?
Pray: Thank God for a promise he has kept in your life. Ask him for the faith of
Mary — to say yes before you can see how it ends.
Leader's Notes
The Honest Answers — Part 1
Before you lead
Give honest, compact answers, and where honest people differ, say so. Don't build
an argument on a single disputed word, and don't preach a number the Bible doesn't give.
“Shiloh” (Genesis 49:10). The Hebrew of that one phrase is genuinely difficult; it's been read
as “until Shiloh comes,” “until he comes to whom it belongs,” and “until tribute comes to him.” Jewish
tradition has long read it messianically (Targum Onkelos renders it “until the Messiah comes”). Don't
build an argument on the English of that one word — the solid ground is the scepter and the
tribe of Judah, which is unmistakable and had visibly failed by Herod's day.
The two genealogies. Matthew runs Joseph's line through Solomon (the royal, legal line
to the throne); Luke runs a different line through David's son Nathan. They differ because
they're doing different jobs. The oldest explanation (Julius Africanus, c. AD 200) is a levirate
marriage that gave Joseph two fathers — one by blood, one by law. It cannot be proven, and
other solutions exist. What does hold either way: the legal, royal claim comes through
Joseph (who makes it official by naming the child), and Paul says Jesus was David's seed “according
to the flesh” (Romans 1:3) — pointing to Mary's physical descent. Crown through the father;
blood through the mother.
Mary's age. Scripture never states it. In that culture girls were typically betrothed in their
early-to-mid teens, so she was likely a teenager — but hold that as backdrop, not doctrine. Don't
preach a number the Bible doesn't give. (Traditions naming her parents Joachim and Anna, or her temple
childhood, come from the 2nd-century Protoevangelium of James — an early belief, not
verified history.)
“Let it be to me according to your word.”Luke 1:38