A Messiah, a Savior, was promised to the people of Israel.

As far back as the third chapter of Genesis,

God promised that one would come to rescue His people.

And that Messiah did come in the fullness of time.

Welcome to the Monday edition of Renewing Your Mind. I'm Lee Webb.

Every Christmas we sing, Oh, come, oh, come Emmanuel.

It paints a picture of the longing of God's people for their Savior.

That hope is grounded in Old Testament promises.

Today and all this week, R.C. Sproul will walk us through the most important messianic prophecies

and we'll see that Jesus fulfilled them all.

As we prepare this year to celebrate Christmas,

we're going to spend a few days looking at some of the important texts of the Old Testament.

That predicted the coming of the Messiah.

So as we contemplate the advent of Christ, which means He's coming to the world,

we want to do it in terms of how Christ fulfilled the Old Testament promises of His coming.

Now, before we actually look at those Old Testament prophecies of His advent,

I want to begin today by looking briefly at the first chapter of the Bible.

Looking briefly at the beginning of the Christmas narrative itself,

as we find it in the second chapter of the gospel according to St. Luke.

The Christmas story begins with these words, Luke chapter 2 verse 1.

And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus

that all the world should be registered.

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