India #6 Christology Part 2
Notes
Transcript
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
Last time we were looking at Christ through the lens of Colossians 1:15-19.
We have one more truth to look at and then we are going to shift our focus to the prophesied Christ.
In the OT Jesus is revealed quite clearly.
Jesus told the Pharisees in John 5:44
“Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. “For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. “But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?”
Moses wrote of Jesus, yet a careful reading of the Pentateuch and you do not find the name Jesus.
Yet Jesus is throughout the Pentateuch.
Jesus taught those two disciples on the road to Emmaus.....
And He said to them, “O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He interpreted to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.
It isn’t just the Moses wrote of Jesus, the entire OT is focused on Jesus when properly understood.
Let me give you an example of how this took place.
When Israel set up camp, the same three tribes camped to the north of the Tabernacle, the same three to the west of the Tabernacel, the same three to the south of the Tabernacle, and the same three to the east of the Tabernacle, every time.
But also, there was a banner on each side of the Tabernacle for each group.
The four division or groups were each headed by one tribe.
Judah was to the north of the Tabernacle and the banner was a lion.
A lion is considered to be the King of the animal kingdom.
Jesus is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the King.
Matthew wrote his gospel to demonstrate that Jesus was the King.
Ephraim was to the south of the Tabernacle and the banner was of an Ox.
And Ox represented a servant.
An ox served the needs of the owner or master.
Likewise Jesus came not to be served but to serve.
Jesus was a servant of God and the redeemed.
In fact, in Isaiah, 4 Messianic songs were written and they are known as the Servant songs.
Mark wrote His gospel and emphasized the servanthood of Jesus.
Reuben was to the east of the Tabernacle and the banner was a man.
Luke wrote his gospel to show that Jesus was the God man.
Luke uses the phrase Son of Man to describe Jesus more than any other gospel.
Luke presents Jesus is His humanity.
Last, Dan camped to the west of the Tabernacle and the banner was that of an eagle.
The Eagle in scripture represents Deity.
John wrote his gospel to convince the world that Jesus was the Son of God.
You see, even in the way Israel set up camp, YHWH was telling us about Jesus.
Jesus the King, Jesus the Servant, Jesus the man, and Jesus the eternal God.
What I want you to understand is this, the Bible is the story of Jesus.
He is on virtually every page, if you look carefully enough.
When we left off in Colossians in our last session we had one more great truth to discuss.
JESUS IS THE FIRSTBORN FROM THE DEAD
JESUS IS THE FIRSTBORN FROM THE DEAD
We talked about this word first born in the last session, and it has the same meaning here, the pre-imminent one.
You see Jesus was not the first person to be resurrected from the dead.
Elijah and Elisha both raised someone from the dead in the OT.
Jesus had raised the daughter of Jairus, the widows son, and His friend Lazarus.
So we know for sure this is not describing the chronology of resurrection.
The same Greek word is used, prototokos.
And it means the most important one, the ruling one, the supreme one.
What the apostle wants us to know is that Jesus is the most important one who was ever raised from the dead.
When the resurrected Saint gather in His presence it will be for worship.
He is worthy of all worship, praise, honor and glory.
The Father has declared Jesus to be the prototokos.
Remember, in the Roman culture the patriarch of the family would choose which son would lead the family after the father died.
This son became the prototokos, and took the place of the firstborn son.
God the Father declared Jesus to be the prototokos so that He would have the first place in everything.
Nothing will supercede Jesus.
Nothing and no one is more important than Jesus.
Therefore He is worthy of all praise glory and honor.
This will be the scene in heaven throughout all eternity.
The saints and the angels will worship the prototokos, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.” And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, “To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be the blessing and the honor and the glory and the might forever and ever.” And the four living creatures kept saying, “Amen.” And the elders fell down and worshiped.
I want you to take note of this great truth.
The entire letter to the Hebrews was written to make this point, that Jesus is the most important being in the universe.
Jesus is more important than angels.
Jesus is more important the Moses.
Jesus is more important that the OT pictures of Messiah.
Jesus is more important than the OT sacrifices.
Jesus is more important than everything the Jews held dear, that is the message of the Hebrew letter.
That should be our message to day, He is the all important One.
Jesus demonstrates His importance in the roles He carried out.
We have already demonstrated that Jesus is God.
So now we turn our attention to those other three realities seen in the banners of Israel and the gospels.
CHRIST THE SERVANT
CHRIST THE SERVANT
Jesus the servant, that is how He saw Himself.
just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
This verse more than any other defines Jesus the servant.
Yes Jesus served in a lot of ways.
He served the needs of the people by feeding them and healing them.
He served the needs of men by teaching the the truth of scripture.
He served God the Father in carrying out the ministry the Father entrusted Him with.
But none of this compares to the service of Christ at the cross.
I mentioned the 4 Messianic servant songs of Isaiah, they culminate with Isaiah 53, the crucifixion of Jesus.
The death of Jesus more than anything else portrays His servant heart.
Paul shows us the servant heart of Christ in Philippians 2:5-9. Turn there with me now and lets read it.
First, though Jesus is God, He became a bond servant.
I don’t know how your translations treat this word, but bond servant comes from the Greek word doulos, and it means slave.
American translators soften the word by translating it bond servant, but it really means slave.
Being a slave is the ultimate picture of a servant.
A slave has no will of his own.
A slave is not free to do as he pleases.
The entire purpose of a slave is to serve the will and purpose of another person.
Jesus even though He was the eternal God, became a slave.
He willingly took on the role of the ultimate servant, a slave.
If you do not understand this about Jesus, then you do not really understand the purpose for which He came.
The idea here is that of humility.
God became a man, that is humility.
Jesus, the second person in the Godhead, stepped out of glory, veiled His glory, set aside all the prerogative of deity, and became one of us.
He became like us so He could become a servant, a slave of God and of us.
He came to die!
He became a man, so He could die.
The slave Jesus Christ, the servant, gave His life a ransom for many.
The ultimate form of service is to lay down ones life for another.
Jesus said there is no greater love than to lay down your life for your friends.
“Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.
Did you know that believers are called the friends of God.
“But you, Israel, My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, Seed of Abraham My friend,
God called Abraham the believer, friend.
“No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.
Jesus calls all disciples friends.
And He served His friends by laying down His life for them, us.
Which brings us to the next point, Christ the man.
CHRIST THE MAN
CHRIST THE MAN
As I shared earlier, the incarnation of Jesus Christ was a controversial issue that the church had to come to terms with.
Early in church history Docetism began to emerge out of Gnosticism because of two errors in their thinking.
First, Gnosticism believed that a higher knowledge was necessary for salvation.
Therefore, it was knowledge of a fact that saved you, not the actual person.
This meant that a literal historical human Jesus was unnecessary.
What was important was the idea of Christ.
Second, Gnosticism was more philosophical than it was spiritual, and all philosophy can be linked to Plato.
Plato believed that all matter was evil, and good could only exist or reside in the spiritual.
Thus, according to the gnostics, and their predecessors, Jesus could never have had a body because a body is made up of matter, and all matter is evil.
Therefore, if Jesus were truly God incarnate, then God inhabited an evil body.
The end result was the heresy known as Docetism.
Docetism denied the humanity of Jesus .
Some might feel the need to ask why is His humanity such a big deal?
Well the implications are many and serious.
Listen to how the apostle John deals with this idea that Jesus did not have a body.
What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life— and the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us— what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you may also have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.
Notice first, what was from the beginning.
This speaks of the eternality of Jesus as the second person of the Trinity.
But then John shits to the physical humanity of Jesus and affirms His humanity through three physical senses.
We heard Him.
We saw Him.
We touched Him.
His life was made manifest to us.
John is affirming the humanity of Jesus.
Friends, the humanity of Jesus is on display everywhere.
He ate, He drank, He got tired, He slept, He walked, He showed emotions, and so much more, all of which demonstrated His humanity.
But again, why is this so important?
First, Jesus became a man so that He would have a body for sacrifice.
From the beginning of human history, a blood sacrifice was required to deal with sin.
In response to Adam and Eve’s sin, God sacrificed an animal and clothed them in its skin.
This was a picture of the eventual death of Jesus whose righteousness would clothe the believer.
This blood sacrifice secured for Adam and Eve the forgiveness of sins they so desperately needed.
When Cain and Abel came before the Lord, Abel brought a blood sacrifice, Cain did not.
Abel’s was given in faith, he believed the Lord, did what was required, and found forgiveness.
Cain came in the strength of his own efforts and was rejected.
We could talk about Noah, Abraham, the entire sacrificial system, it was all instituted to provide a picture of Jesus Christ, the once and for all sacrifice.
If Jesus was going to give Himself as a sin offering, He had to have a body.
Thus, He became a man, at a particular point in time through the incarnation.
Jesus existed eternally as the second person of the Trinity, but on a particular day, entered into the human realm as a babe in human flesh.
The Bible again and again makes this point, that God became a man.
concerning His Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was designated as the Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,
Here we see both.
Jesus was born a man of the seed of David, a descendent of David.
But He was also the Son of God, and had forever been so, and the resurrection proved as much.
The greatest picture of this is scene in Hebrews 9 and 10.
Now when these things have been so prepared, the priests are continually entering the first part of the tabernacle performing the divine worship, but into the second, only the high priest enters once a year, not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance.
The things prepared was the Temple where divine worship took place.
But notice, once a year, the high priest enters into the inner sanctuary, the Holy of Holies.
But not without blood!
Once a year the high priest went into before YHWH, and he always took blood.
Blood was necessary for the forgiveness of sin.
And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
No blood, no forgiveness.
If sin was to be forgiven, a blood sacrifice had to take place.
For the wages of sin is death.
The justice of God demands the payment of sin.
Jesus became a man, in order to pay that debt.
But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy places once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.
Notice, Jesus did not enter into the earthly Tabernacle, but into the heavenly one.
The earthly Tabernacle or Temple was just a replica of the real one in Heaven, where the throne of YHWH is.
It was into this heavenly Tabernacle that Jesus went.
Notice also, Jesus did not enter in the way every other priest had done.
They all went into the presence of the Lord with the blood of bulls and goats.
But Jesus went in with His own blood.
What we are looking at is the Day of Atonement.
On the day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, the High priest went through an elaborate ritual of cleansing and sacrifice for himself so that he could offer sacrifice for the people.
He had to do this because all high priests were sinners.
Therefore, before they could represent the people before YHWH, they had to be cleansed themselves.
This was missing with regard to Christ.
But after the High Priest was cleansed, he then offer a sacrifice for the nation of Israel.
When the animal was killed, blood was collected in a basis.
The high priest then went into the inner sanctuary, the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant was.
He took that blood, and dipped his finger into the basin of blood 7 times, each time shaking the blood off of his finger onto the Ark.
Having done this, all past sins of the nation Israel were forgiven.
But next year, the high priest had to do all over again.
And the year after, and the year after that, perpetually, until…..
Until Jesus entered in once and for all, with His own blood.
Once and for all are critical words.
Jesus only had to do this one time.
And that one act of sacrifice, paid the debt of all sin and for all believers.
Those next words are such beautiful words, having obtained eternal redemption.
We talked about what it means to be redeemed, Jesus purchased us with His own blood.
I pointed out then, blood speaks of death.
It wasn’t just that Jesus bled, it was that He died.
The wages of sin are death.
Peter reminds us that …. 1 Peter 1:18-20
knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your futile conduct inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but appeared in these last times for the sake of you
Do you see the importance of the incarnation?
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though being rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.
Jesus was rich is pointing at all the privileges of deity Jesus enjoyed prior to the incarnation.
He became poor is pointing at His humanity and all that He gave up to become a man.
And He did it all, so that we could become like Him through the salvation He made available.
But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law,
so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
Here we see the same truth, Jesus was born of a woman, as a man under the law, so that we might receive the adoption as sons.
Jesus, the eternal Son of God, had to become a man, in order that He might offer that body as a sacrifice in payment of the sin debt.
This is why all of those heresies that deny the humanity of Jesus are so dangerous.
If Jesus did not have a body, then He did not die, and He did not have blood to pay the debt of our sin.
If He did not have a body, then we are still dead in our trespasses and sins.
Second, Jesus not only had to have a body, but it had to be lived out in perfection.
The Ceremonial Law of Moses required that each sacrifice be perfect.
for you to be accepted—it must be a male without blemish from the cattle, the sheep, or the goats. ‘Whatever has a defect, you shall not bring it near, for it will not be accepted for you.
AT least thirty times the Lord tells the nation Israel that the sacrifices must be without blemish.
No animals with broken bones, or sores, or castrated animals shall be offered.
Every sacrifice had to be a male, and it had to be without blemish.
The animals themselves are not held to moral standards, they cannot and do not sin.
So what was the without blemish intended to teach us?
It is a picture of the sinless perfection of Jesus Christ.
Jesus was the sinless One, the only sinless One.
God’s standard is perfection.
It required a sacrifice of a sinless one if the debt of sin was to be paid.
So it was not enough that Jesus had to have a body, He also had to have lived a sinless life.
Jesus came in the flesh to fulfill the law.
“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.
When we say that Jesus fulfilled the law, what we mean is that Jesus lived a life of perfect obedience to the law.
Not one time did Jesus sin in spite of being subject to all the temptations as we are.
For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things like we are, yet without sin.
Did you realize that is was part of God the Father’s eternal plan for His Son to be tempted in all things?
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
The Spirit took Jesus deep into the wilderness, all alone, to be tempted by Satan.
Jesus fasted for 40 days, and then the temptations began.
First Jesus was tempted physically, turn these stones to bread.
Second Jesus was tempted spiritually, throw yourself down and see if God rescues you.
Last, Jesus was tempted with reward, worship the Devil and all the world can be yours now, without the suffering of the cross.
The good news, Jesus passed each and every test.
He never sinned in the wilderness, or in life.
He is the sinless Son of God.
Jesus faces all that this life could throw at Him, and He never sinned, He never disobeyed the Father, and He always did that which was good and right by God’s standards.
This sinless perfection qualified Jesus to die for the sins of the world.
We need an atonement for our sins, and Christ is the only person who could accomplish that great work for us.
There is no other option.
In America we sing songs about how death could not hold Him, death could not keep Him.
Do you know why death could not hold Jesus?
Because Jesus had no sin.
The curse of sin is death.
No sin, and death has no claim on the person.
Jesus lived a perfect sinless life, and death had no claim on Him.
The death He died was our death, in our place.
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
The Father made the Son to be sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
In His humanity, Jesus was tempted in every way as you and I, but was without sin.
The Son of God had to be tested, and that test could only take place in a body.
The eternal Son of God became incarnate so that, He could fulfill the law, living a perfect life, which qualified Him to die in our place.
Anselm of Canterbury said is thus, “God became man in Christ because only one who was both God and man could achieve our salvation.
Third, Jesus became incarnate so that we could know God in ways previously unknowable.
He is the image of the invisible God.
If you saw Jesus, then you had seen the Father.
He came in the flesh to provide mankind with a visible representation of God.
When Jesus forgave sin, He provided a picture of the forgiveness of God for sin.
When Jesus fed people, He provided picture of God’s provision for people.
He gave us a picture of God in His humanity that we could relate to.
So don’t ever let anybody tell you that the incarnation is not important.
Jesus becoming a man is an essential doctrine, one that must be defended.
CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION
All of this leaves us with this conclusion, we are loved by a great God with a great love, so much so that He crucified His Son, that we might have life and have it most abundantly.