2 Peter 1:19-20- “And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”  This is a very powerful truth concerning God.  The Old Testament is filled with approximately 300 prophecies concerning Jesus Christ.  There are specific details given involving His birth, life, death, and resurrection.  All of these were spoken many hundreds of years before Christ was even born.  What I pray we will grow in our understanding of concerning this truth is how truly incredible it really is.  The statisticians have done their job in determining the odds for one man to fulfill so many prophecies.  The findings are astronomical.  And yet, we know that Jesus Christ in fact fulfilled every single prophecy given by God.  It is also important to note that God did not give man prophecies to simply impress them.  God had a very simple purpose concerning prophecies. Jesus reveals that purpose in Luke 24:25-27- “Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!  Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?  And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.”  God gave man all the prophecies in the Old Testament so they could be used as a foundation in proving that Christ is the Messiah.  This is made abundantly clear with the leaders in the early church.  Look at Apollos in Acts 18.  He needed some instruction himself from Aquila and Priscilla concerning baptism and then notice in verse 28 when he went to Achaia, he “vigorously refuted the Jews publicly, showing from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ.”  What an incredible part of history!  Those very same prophecies are just as valid today as they were hundreds of years ago in proving that Jesus is the Christ!