The Coming King Is The Lamb Of God
Jesus Is Coming Again • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
31 Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.
32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.
Let us go back and look at events leading up to Christ's crucifixion. We want to see the faith-inspiring correlation between what the prophets foretold and what transpired. Notably, we want to have burned into our hearts and minds how a failure to understand the Old Testament prophecies caused the religious leaders and Christ's own disciples to dishonor God and fail to recognize who the Messiah was and why He came. That lesson should provide sufficient incentive for each of us to take another careful look at prophecy with renewed interest and appreciation.
For months the scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees had been plotting to kill Jesus. Fearful of losing their positions and authority and encouraged by satanic enticement, Israel's religious leaders were blinded to the truth by pride and self-protective jealousy. Their hearts were filled with envy and hatred toward this One who defied their traditions and spoke truth with an authority piercing their hardened consciences like a sword. Had they truly been willing to know and do God's will, they would have understood His Word (John 7:17). Without that willingness to submit to His truth, no one can understand the Scriptures.
It was common knowledge by now that Jesus of Nazareth had healed multitudes of every kind of disease, made the lame walk, opened the eyes of the blind, even raised the dead. Those public miracles, witnessed by so many, could not be denied. No wonder the self-centered religious leaders both hated and feared Him. His growing popularity with the masses threatened to put them out of business. They were serving themselves instead of God and His people. As John tells us:
47 Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we? for this man doeth many miracles.
48 If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation.
49 And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all,
50 Nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not.
Rationalizing Hatred Towards Jesus - A Deceiving Imposter
How could the rabbis justify even to themselves such malice? It was pretty easy, as rationalization always is. The miracles had to be an elaborate trick with the aid of unknown accomplices. This Jesus of Nazareth was such a crafty, slippery impostor! Whomever the Sanhedrin hired to engage Him in public debate to expose Him as a fraud was made to look abjectly foolish. How had He acquired such knowledge and brilliance? He confounded their best lawyers with ease and wisdom, which was far beyond anything being taught in their rabbinical schools—or in any other centers of learning on this earth.
This audacious Nazarene had even said that His kingdom was "not of this world." What did that mean? Was He deliberately baiting them? Multitudes were treating Him as though He were indeed a king. The situation had become so explosive that the Romans might step in suddenly with military force. Something had to be done!
Intoxicated by the seeming miracles— especially by His apparent ability to feed thousands of followers with a few loaves and fishes—the impetuous populace was murmuring against Caesar and hinting that this Jesus ought to be installed as King of the Jews. His followers, now numbering in the thousands, were under His hypnotic spell. Falling for His staged triumphal entrance into Jerusalem, they had openly hailed Him as the Messiah. Threats by the religious leaders to excommunicate anyone who even so much as whispered such heresy had failed to stifle the insidious rumors or to stem the growing tide of His popularity.
In opposing this Galilean and being made out to be fools for their trouble, the rabbis had lost the respect and attention of the ordinary people. Even the children swarming around Him in the temple cried, "Hosanna to the son of David" [i.e., Messiah]. When the chief priests and scribes reproved Him for accepting such praise, Jesus had boldly replied: "Yea, have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise" (Matthew 21:16)?
Those who had once obeyed with reverence the edicts of the ruling Sanhedrin now ignored them. Instead, they hung with rapt attention on every word of this upstart Nazarene, as though He were God Himself- which, indeed, He blasphemously claimed to be. That had been the last straw! Surely now they had legal cause under the Mosaic law for a public execution. No one could complain.
He Claimed to Be God!
"Unless you believe that I AM [that was the name with which God revealed Himself to Moses!] you will die in your sins, and where I go you cannot come" (John 8:21-4
21 Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot come.
22 Then said the Jews, Will he kill himself? because he saith, Whither I go, ye cannot come.
23 And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world.
24 I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.
The Ever Present One
Utter blasphemy, to be sure, but what did He mean by "where I go you cannot come"? He kept throwing in these strange ideas that their consciences were dulled to the voice of tit-interest that their consciences were dulled to the voice of truth when He spoke in their very midst.
The statements He made about Himself were staggering:
"I AM the Bread of Life come down from heaven" (John 6:33-35);
"I AM the light of the world, he who follows me shall not walk in darkness" (John 8:12);
"I AM the door, by me if any man enter in he shall be saved" (John 10:9);
"I AM the Son of God" (John 10:36);
I AM the resurrection and the life... he who believes in me shall never die" (John 11:25,26).
Anyone else who persisted in making such incredible claims would be dismissed as insane—but not this man. He spoke these words with an authority that couldn't be challenged. The rabbis had tried.
This cunning rabble-rouser deliberately used the words "I AM" in a way that not only outraged but dumbfounded and frightened the scribes and Pharisees. There could be no doubt that He was claiming to be God. Yet He cleverly avoided boasting about it, as one would expect some egomaniac to do.
He made His dignified and seemingly sincere claim to deity with His use of "I AM" in exactly the same way Yahweh had revealed Himself to the prophets. One was afraid to stand near Him when He made these brazen declarations for fear lightning would strike or the ground would open up to swallow Him as it had Korah and his followers (Numbers 16:32)!
"Before Abraham was, I AM" (John 8:58). There it was again! On that occasion, even the ordinary people within earshot had been so scandalized that they had joined the rabbis in taking up stones to kill Him. Yet He walked unscathed through their midst and they were powerless to stop Him. And now the rabble were thoroughly convinced and on His side. The Romans were complaining about the restlessness among the people! What could be done? Multitudes were treating Him as though He really were the Messiah!
How dare any man in his right mind makes such grandiose claims for himself – even that he was God! Yet this obviously Israel's cleverest lawyers had tried to trip him up with trick questions about the law of Moses and He had turned the tables on them every time. He had to be eliminated for the good of the nation.
A Frustrated Manhunt
Where had He gotten His education? Certainly not in their rabbinical schools, which He had never attended. The people reverently called Him "Rabbi!" It was galling and infuriating for the religious leaders to hear a title they had labored so long to earn applied admiringly to this uneducated Galilean. Without any conscience at all He accepted such adulation:
"Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I AM" (John 13:13).
He seemingly had no compunction about applying God's unspeakable name to Himself!
This carpenter-turned-itinerant-preacher was an enigma.
He was no mere reckless liar- far worse than that. There was no mistaking that He knew exactly what He was saying and obviously believed His grandiose claims, for He pronounced them with great conviction.
"Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up in three days!" He was an incurable braggart as well as a blasphemer of the most impertinent kind.
Such flagrant defiance of the law demanded the death penalty. That just verdict had been secretly agreed upon by the authorities long ago-but how to take Him when admiring mobs surrounded Him at all times was the problem. Jesus of Nazareth had headed the list of "most wanted" criminals for so long that it had become an embarrassment. Even the temple guard who had been sent to arrest Him returned empty-handed, mumbling helplessly, "Never man spake like this man" (John 7:46).
Why was He still at large? His arrest and death had been sought diligently for months, but no one had been able to lay a hand upon Him. And now, at last, here was the chance they had so long awaited— a stroke of good fortune! He would not elude them this time!
An Opportunity for the Sanhedrin
One of Christ's own inner circle had surprised the rabbis with an opportunity they had never expected. Judas had told them that, unlike His past caution, Jesus was staying on at Jerusalem for some strange reason. It would be a simple matter to lead a band of soldiers to an isolated night rendezvous where they could take Him all alone without the protection of the crowd that always surrounded Him in the city.
Although the rabbis had nothing but contempt for that greedy traitor, they were only too glad to use him to their own ends. He had driven a hard bargain. Thirty pieces of silver was a large sum but more than worth it to the Sanhedrin. Before the night was over, with Judas guiding them to Jesus's hiding place and with no admiring rabble flocking around to protect Him, they would arrest this blaspheming troublemaker and turn Him over to the Romans for execution. He would die like the common criminal He was. At long last they would be rid of Him.
What a relief it would be when this great impostor was out of the way and the people were once more under their power. Oh, yes, He had said He would rise from the dead the third day— claimed that was what He meant about raising up the temple, that He was referring to the temple of His body. So be it. They would seal the tomb and set a guard so the disciples couldn't steal the body and claim a resurrection. This lie would be His last—the final proof that would explode the myths surrounding Him and break the spell that held even His most ardent followers. That charlatan would soon be forgotten, like so many pretenders before him who had gathered a following only to die in disgrace, their disciples scattered in disillusionment.
So the Sanhedrin thought. It was not, however, the conniving of Judas and the rabbis that determined the shameful events of that dark night and the following day. The plotters were oblivious that they were the unwitting instruments of God's will. Christ's mock trial and crucifixion, which the rabbis thought proved their power over Him, would prove instead what they so furiously denied—that He was indeed the Messiah.
All According to God's Plan
Prophecies by the dozens, recorded centuries before by Israel's acknowledged prophets, were being fulfilled to the letter by those who sought His death. Every move the religious leaders made added one more proof that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ. When he finally understood it, that astounding fact would be Peter's dramatic revelation in his first sermon on the Day of Pentecost.
The betrayal, Pilate's sham judgment, and the crucifixion had already been decreed by the "determined counsel and foreknowledge of God" (Acts 2:23) long before the world was even created
(Ephesians 1:4;
1 Peter 1:20). All would occur exactly as the prophets had foretold.
How could the future be known and revealed before it happened?
Indeed, such an outrageous idea had to be a myth!
Astrologers deceitfully used ambiguous phrases that could apply to almost any occasion or event. Likewise, the words of the Hebrew prophets in the Scriptures were often so cryptic that they could be interpreted in many ways. So why waste valuable time on such vain speculations?
Such skepticism toward prophecy caused it to be a neglected topic in the Israel of that day. Prophecy is likewise primarily in disfavor even in the evangelical Church in our time, and because of similar unbelief. Yet the words are clear for those hungry to know God's revealed will and wise enough to seek and obey it. To them, He unfolds the future, as Daniel was told:
10 Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.
As we shall see, there is no more exciting and enlightening topic to study than prophecy!
The very Scriptures that the rabbis read with such pomp and ceremony in the synagogues each Sabbath declared the horrendous outrage against heaven that they were determined to carry out. The perpetrators of the most heinous crime in the history of the universe were acting out the fulfillment of prophecy and were not even aware that they were doing so. What terrifying judgment they were bringing upon themselves, which could have been avoided had they but known and heeded the prophets!
The Enigma of Two Comings
Isaiah, the prophet who had written so much about the Messiah's endless reign of perfect peace, had also declared unequivocally that He would be "despised and rejected" (Isaiah 53:3) by Israel and even slain
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: And who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living: For the transgression of my people was he stricken.
9 And he made his grave with the wicked, And with the rich in his death; Because he had done no violence, Neither was any deceit in his mouth.
How could He be killed, and yet reign over the promised kingdom? The contradiction seemed impossible to reconcile, so the prophecies of His rejection and death were ignored. Of course, if these prophecies referred to two comings of the Messiah-one in weakness as the "Lamb of God" (John 1:29) to die for our sins, the other in power and glory as the "Lion of Judah" (Revelation 5:5) - then the contradiction disappeared.
Such a likelihood, however, never occurred to the Jews in Christ's day, causing them in ignorance to fulfill the Scriptures by crucifying their Lord. In like manner, most Christians today reject the possibility that two comings for Christ yet remain in the future. We shall see that, after examining all the relevant prophecies and comparing them carefully one with another, there is no other conclusion that one can logically reach.
David, the greatest of Israel's kings, upon whose throne the Messiah would eventually reign, had foretold the same astonishing rejection of the Messiah by His own people (Psalm 22:6,7). He had even described the manner of His death this Holy One would be crucified (Psalm 22:16). That prophecy was inspired by God and written into Scripture many centuries before this method of execution had been adopted by the Romans as a means of putting down uprisings following their conquests. David and the other prophets had to be divinely inspired, for who but God could know the future so far ahead and with such accuracy?
There was more. The God who inspired David to prophesy the crucifixion had also promised him that the Messiah would be his descendant and would reign on the Davidic throne in Jerusalem: "I will set up thy seed after thee... and I will establish... the throne of his kingdom forever" (2 Samuel 7:12-17). To be despised and rejected by Israel and crucified and yet to reign over His people in Jerusalem? Clearly, both could not occur at the same time.
Indeed, Messiah had to come twice to fulfill two such divergent prophecies. And since His reign would never cease, He had to be crucified the first time, rise from the dead, and ascend to David's throne later. For the learned rabbis not to recognize that fact was inexcusable,
Victory in Apparent Defeat
The cross was Christ's triumph—a victory that would establish His kingdom through apparent defeat, Through death He destroyed "him that had the power of death, that is the devil"
14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
That same victory over sin and over the forces of darkness is now available to Christ's followers. It comes for them, as for their Lord, not by bravado nor with the guarantee of immunity from suffering, but by way of meekness, submission to the Father's will and apparent defeat in the death of the cross. As Jesus said, "If anyone will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me" (Matthew 16:24).
Not that Christians must all die on literal crosses, though martyrdom has been the fate of many. The flagellation of the flesh accomplishes nothing. Victory is in His cross, not in some other cross one might bear. Christ alone could pay the entire debt for sin. Through faith in His substitutionary death upon the cross for all mankind, those who believe are eternally set free from sin's penalty. It is a gratuitous gift of God's grace.
And what of sin's power to deceive and enslave? Freedom from sin’s penalty and power comes in the same way— through embracing His death as one’s own. When Christ took our place, God's justice required His death. Those who believe He died in their place acknowledge that they justly deserved the death penalty and confess that they have died in Him. Sin no longer has any power over those who are dead, nor does this world hold any enticements for them.
The greatest promise, however, is that He will take us to His Father's house in heaven, where we will be free from sin's presence forever.
Through paying upon the cross the full debt demanded by Infinite Justice, Christ has delivered us from the penalty of sin, is delivering us from its power, and will one day deliver us eternally from its very presence.
This snatching away of His followers from earth is known as the Rapture. The word is found in the Latin translation of the New Testament. It simply means an ecstatic catching away.
How close are we to that incredibly wonderful event? The following Sunday night messages will focus on this major question.