1C. Seven hundred years before His birth His birth place was predicted by Micah, in Micah 5.2, even though it was not the home city of His mother.

2C. One thousand years before it occurred David predicted the precise form of His death, though it was a method of execution not then known, Psalm 22.

3C. His virgin birth was predicted six hundred years before it occurred, in Isaiah 7.14.

4C. More than four hundred years before His birth His forerunner was predicted, Malachi 3.1.

5C. More than five hundred years before His birth the amount of money for which He was betrayed was predicted, Zechariah 11.13, to be thirty pieces of silver.

6C. A thousand years in advance of His death it was predicted that men would gamble for His clothes, Psalm 22.

7C. A thousand years in advance it was predicted that His legs would not be broken as the legs of all others who were executed were broken, Psalm 34.20.

8C. Finally, more than five hundred years before it occurred, and exactly 483 years from the historical event Daniel indicated would start the numbering of the years, the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ into the city of Jerusalem was predicted, Daniel 9.24-26.

9C. Folks, these are only eight of hundreds of predictions that were literally fulfilled by the Lord Jesus Christ. They, and many other prophecies, are announcements, if you will, of His coming given centuries in advance.

1C. Look high and look low. Look in the Koran and look elsewhere if you want to, but you will find no ahead of time announcement of Mohammed’s coming.

2C. He appeared without notice or notification of his coming.

1C. I’ve told you that the place of Jesus’ birth was predicted to be Bethlehem, Micah 5.2.

2C. I’ve told you that Jesus was born of a virgin, Isaiah 7.14.

3C. I should tell you that it was predicted that He would be born a Jew, of the tribe of Judah, and of the house and lineage of David.

4C. Should I point out that Jesus was named before He was born? Matthew 1.21.

1C. Except for passing references to the fact that Mohammed was born into a poor family, that his father died before he was born, and his mother passed away before he was six, leaving him to be raised by a grandmother and an uncle, there are no claims made by Muslims regarding the birth of Mohammed.

2C. So, Jesus was announced, while Mohammed was not. Jesus’ birth was predicted and was truly miraculous, since He was sired by no man and was delivered by a virgin. But Mohammed had both a mother and a father, making his birth, in contrast to the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ’s, quite ordinary.

1C. The Bible declares that Jesus lived a life without sin, Hebrews 4.15.

2C. The Bible records many signs, wonders and miracles performed by the Lord Jesus Christ, from feeding five thousand with but a few loaves and fishes, to walking on the water, to raising the dead, to giving sight to the blind, to healing the crippled, to cleansing the lepers, to casting out demons.

3C. As well, Jesus claimed to be God, claimed to be the exclusive Savior of sinful men’s souls, claimed to forgive sins, and claimed to Himself give men eternal life.

4C. During His lifetime Jesus raised His hand against no man. As a matter of fact, He actually healed one of the men who arrested Him for trial and crucifixion after the apostle Peter had wounded him with a sword by cutting off his ear.

1C. From authoritative sources, such as Fazlur Rahman, Ph.D., professor of Islamic Thought at the University of Chicago, and from Edwin M. Yamauchi, Ph.D., of the Institute For Religious Research, I find that the Koran makes no claim that Mohammed ever worked a miracle.

2C. And Muslims acknowledge that Mohammed committed sins, but that he was somehow cleansed of all unworthy thoughts when he was 12 years old and enabled to intercede on behalf of sinners.

3C. Far different in his approach to life than the Lord Jesus, Mohammed was active in the pursuit of open warfare against those who opposed him, at one time according to Muslim scholars commanding an army of 10,000. He ordered the killing of many of his opponents, and many others died at the hands of his followers during his lifetime.

4C. So, one claimed to be God while the other claimed to speak for God. One performed miracles while the other did not. One refused to resort to violence, though He could have called ten thousand angels, while the other was very familiar with violence and presided over the deaths of many who opposed him.

5C. Very different births, very different lives.

1C. Just as Israel is likened as a wife to Jehovah, in the Hebrew Scriptures, so the Lord Jesus Christ is spoken of as having a bride, with Him being the bride groom.

2C. But the Bride Groom has a spiritual wife, comprised of all who are born again through faith in Jesus Christ.

3C. John the Baptist referred to his Lord Jesus as the Bride Groom in John 3.29, and Paul reminded the Corinthians that he had espoused them as a chaste virgin to Christ, in Second Corinthians 11.2.

4C. The Lord Jesus Christ will someday come back and take His bride to heaven with Him, His bride being comprised of all truly born again Christians. Needless to day, the union between Jesus and His bride will be a spiritual union, not a physical union.

1C. His first wife was a businesswoman who proposed to him, though he was twenty years younger than she was. So long as she lived Mohammed took no other wives.

2C. But when his first wife, Khadija, died he married at least ten women and had an additional number of concubines.

3C. The youngest wife he took was a nine year old girl named A’isha, who actually brought her toys with her into her marriage with Mohammed.

4C. Though none of Mohammed’s sons lived to adulthood, he did adopt a son named Zaid, and when he received a special revelation authorizing it, he married Zaid’s beautiful wife, Zainab.

5C. Under Islamic law taught by Mohammed men who are Muslims are allowed to marry no more than four women at a time, though Islamic divorce can be accomplished by reciting a single phrase three times in succession.

6C. So you can see that, with respect to their brides, there are vast differences between the Lord Jesus Christ and the founder of Islam, Mohammed.

1C. The Lord Jesus Christ did not die the death of an aged man. He did not die the death of someone who was sick or ailing. He died an unimaginably brutal death at the hands of Roman soldiers who were expert at inflicting painful deaths as a climax to great suffering.

2C. But since the death of the Lord Jesus Christ was predicted as far back as Genesis 3.15, and in great detail in both Isaiah 53 and Zechariah 12.10, it is fair to ask What was accomplished by His death?

3C. By His death and the shedding of His blood He accomplished a number of things, including:

1C. Islamic scholars tell us that in 632 Mohammed became ill with violent headaches and a fever. Before he died he exhorted the Arabs to remain united, proclaimed the duties of married couples and abolished usury and the blood feud.

2C. When he announced that if he owed anything to anyone that person could claim it, a hush fell on the crowd. One man supposedly came forward to claim a few coins.

3C. Mohammed finally succumbed and was buried in the house of his wife A’isha, who had nursed him during his last days. The prophet’s tomb at Medina is, after Mecca, the site most venerated by Muslims.

4C. So, the death of the Lord Jesus Christ in the prime of His physical life was an event of cosmic proportions, bringing to a climax God’s redemptive purpose in the sacrificial death of His Son. The death of Mohammed was the death of an old man who got sick and said a few words before he died.

1C. First of all, it was predicted 1000 years before the resurrection occurred. Second, it occurred despite adversarial forces placed at the tomb to prevent any such thing from happening. And third, the Lord Jesus Christ showed Himself alive with many infallible proofs.

2C. The women saw Him. The apostles saw Him. The men on the road to Emmaus saw Him. Thomas was invited to thrust his fingers into Jesus’ crucifixion wounds. Years later the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus.

3C. As a matter of fact, when Paul wrote his first Corinthian letter more than 500 eyewitnesses to Christ’s resurrection were still alive, and that was more than twenty years later.

4C. So important to Christianity is the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead that the apostle Paul wrote, "if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain," First Corinthians 15.14.

1C. The story of Mohammed’s ascension into heaven is thought even by Muslim scholars to have been modeled after the ascension of Jesus to heaven.

2C. But Islam has Mohammed’s ascension into heaven without any real evidence of a resurrection and no real significance in Mohammed’s death.

3C. What, then, did Mohammed’s death accomplish? They make no claim that it accomplished anything.

4C. One’s death was redemptive, while the other’s was not. One’s death was sacrificial, while the other’s was not. One’s death was predicted, while the other’s was not. One’s death was meaningful, while the other’s was not.

1C. For the press of time, let me urge you to consider only the first followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. What happened to them? What did they do? What were they like?

2C. Well, we know that they turned the world upside down, Acts 17.6. But in what fashion did they accomplish the spread of the Gospel?

3C. By preaching and teaching and suffering martyrdom. They did not wield the sword, but suffered great persecution at the hands of the Romans and the Jews and others.

4C. So, Christ’s legacy is a legacy of forgiveness, of mercy, of grace, of goodness.

1C. His followers were warriors first and foremost. In about the same amount of time Islam spread about the same distance across the face of the earth, but by different means.

2C. Their message was convert or die at the hand of the sword. And convert many people did, for fear of execution.

3C. What a different legacy was left by Mohammed than the Lamb of God, Who taketh away the sin of the world. Amen?