Messiah in All Things

Intro

10 1/2 months ago, we started a journey — a journey like that of the two disciples as they walked with the Resurrected Christ on the road to Emmaeus, before they recognized who He was, and assumed him to be simply an uninformed stranger…

Yet He proceeded to open up the Scriptures, interpreting them as they were meant to be understood — all pointing forward to the Christ, the Messiah.

34 Sermons — from Genesis, tot he blank page between the Old Testament and the New Testament (and it could have been far more!)

Finding the Messiah— asking the question: Where is Jesus?

How should we wrap something like this up? How do we bring it all to a close? Well…I’m going to give it a shot this morning…

But, while this might be the end of a sermon series, my prayer is that it is in no way the end of our journey of coming to know the Messiah, know Jesus, more and more, seeing him in every page of Scripture, and every page of history, including your own.

New & Old Treasures

Matthew 13

CONTEXT: Kingdom Parables - we’ve unpacked these in previous weeks. Coming to understand and see the establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of the Messiah, with the understanding that we are awaiting it’s fullness, its completion.

READ Matthew 13:51-52

Scribe - expert teacher in the Law (Old Testament Scholar)

“been trained for the kingdom of heaven” - BECOME A DISCIPLE OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN - follower, student

The Old Testament isn’t made invalid by the Gospel. Jesus didn’t come onto the scene to negate everything that came before, and start over from scratch. He is not disconnected from, in opposition to, or in any way misaligned with the Old Testament.

To understand Christ, to be a disciple of the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of the Messiah, we go to the storehouses, and we bring out what is new and what is old.

What is new: Jesus’ inaugeration of the Kingdom. That hadn’t happened yet when the Old Testament was given.

What is old: The Old Testament. The old Covenant, and it’s covenental documents.

So when we come into the Kingdom, when we become disciples of Jesus, we bring out both the new and the old. Our faith, who Jesus is, His Kingdom that we become a part of when we surrender our lives to Him—is not just rooted in the Old Testament, but it is the fulfillment of all that the Old Testament was about.

We bring out the old treasures of the front half of this book, we see them now through the NEW, the finished work of the Messiah on the cross, shown to us through the second half.

As disciples of Jesus today, we are a part of His Kingdom, the Kingdom that was foretold in the Old Testament, established by Jesus’ death and resurrection, and that will be fulfilled at His coming again.

God didn’t hit the pause button, or the restart button.

We can only every truly understand and grasp who the Messiah is, if we see Him as the fulfillment of all that came before Him. And we can only truly understand and grasp all that came before Him, when we see it through the lens of His death and resurrection.

So who is this Messiah?

Messiah in All Things

In the beginning: the creation of all things: He is the image of the invisible God…by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones of dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.

At the Fall: He is the first Gospel to be preached, the Seed of the Woman that would one day crush the head of the serpant. Our Redemption—the One who regains what we lost in Eden—Not just a perfect world, though it includes that, but our identiy, our purpose.

At the Flood: For 120 years, while the ark was being built, the Spirit of Christ was proclaiming a message of salvation through the righteous life of Noah.

In God’s Covenant with Abram: He is the One who upholds both sides of the treaty, as he and he alone passed through the cut animals…He pays the ultimate price upon the cross for the failure of Abram and all who came after him.

When Abraham, in obdience, laid his son Isaac upon the altar, He was the ram caught in the thicket…the subtitute…the one who makes every sacrifice, every surrender, worth it—the one who requires it all, yet gives back more than we could ever imagine.

He is the One who Jacob wrestled with in the wilderness, who transformed Jacob from a cheater…to one who, in humility, strives with God.

He is the One reflected in the life of Joseph, as he’s sold into slavery, facing injustice after injustice, yet in the end says: what you intended for evil, God intended for good.

When the people of God are in bondage in Egypt, He is the One who appears in the Burning Bush to Moses, the GREAT I AM, the One who remembers His people.

And as the people of God are rescued and brought out of Egypt, He is the Passover Lamb, the substitute firstborn…bearing their death so that they could have life and freedom.

He was the Cloud by Day and Fire by night who led His people through the wilderness and to the Promised Land, leading them on the path for their good and His Glory.

When they were hungry in the Wilderness, He was the bread from Heaven, Manna…The true bread to fill every hunger and every thirst.

In the Law, He is the Atonement for His people, the One who bore their sins, whose blood was shed, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, who did what no bull and no goat ever could.

When the people fail to enter the Promised Land, when the gifts of God become repugnant in their eyes, and when they face the very just consequences for their rejection of God, He is the One who is lifted up, who draws all people to Himself, offering salvation to any who would look upon Him.

As the people of God finally prepare to enter the land Promised to them, He is the Commander of the Lord’s Army who appears to Joshua…inviting Joshua and the people of Israel to trust Him fully as they prepared to receive the promise.

And as they settle in the land, He is the ultimate fulfillment of every promise that God ever made to His People…He is the offspring of Abraham, in whom all the Promises of God find their Yes and Amen.

In Judges, we see His absense, as the people turn further and further away from Him, Yet we see Him appear as the Kinsman Redeemer, who gives new life and hope to the widow who looks to be shelterred under His wing.

When the Priests and Judges failed to live up to the role given them by God, We see Him as the true and better Priest and Judge, saving to the uttermost those who would draw near to God through Him.

When Israel demands a King like the other nations, as they are dissapointed by this first King, receiving after a King after God’s own Heart, He is the One from the Line of David, The One David was merely a foreshadowing of—the Promised One who would establish the Kingdom of God on earth forever.

As the Ark of the Covenant is brought into Jerusalem, He is the Holy and Righeous One who invites us to boldy approach the Throne of Grace, yet to do so in reverence and humility…never seeing Him as a trinket or good luck charm, but as the One who yearns jealously over the soul he has made to dwell in us.

As the Temple is then built, and the Glory of God descends upon it, He is the fulfillment of all the Temple was, the once and final sacrifice of which all previous were merely a picture of…and who now makes His Presence dwell not in a Temple made with hands, but within all who call upon His Name.

In the Psalms, He is our lament—the one who once and for all cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me” so that we will never have to.

When life seems like a vapour, temporary and meaningless, He is the True Wisdom from Heaven, inviting us to trust His Word even when it doesn’t make sense.

And when it all falls apart…when the Kingdom of God’s people is enveloped by war and is divided, He is the One who remains faithful—the fulfillment of the Promise, the King from the line of David, who will establish His Kingdom once and for all, yet who patiently waits, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

Through War and Exile, He remains the Promised One, the Messiah…

The suffering servant who was peirced for our transgressions, who was crushed for our sin, the one who became intimately acquainted with our grief, our sickness and our pain…

He is the True Shepherd of His People, who will gather them, give them rest, bind up the injured, strengthen the weak, destroy the oppressor, and feed His sheep in justice.

He is the faithful Husband who redeems His wife from the pit.

He is the One to rebuild and restore the booth of David for every person, regardless of thier ethnic heritage, who is called by the name of the Lord.

He is the ruler, the one from old, from ancient days, the shepherd who is our peace.

He is the one who saves, who rejoices over his people with song, who quiets, and exults over, who gathers to Himself all who long for Him.

He is the man whose name is the Branch, the Priest who sits on the Throne, the fountain opened for the cleansing of sin.

He is the One who Establishes His Kingdom, the Kingdom of the Messiah, once and for all on the great and awesome day of the LORD.

And on the blank pages…the in betweens…He is the same Messiah in the silence as He is in the Promise.

And that’s just a glimpse of who He is.

It’s all about Him. Every page of Scripture points to Him.

There is a saying from the ancient world: All roads lead to Rome. The Roman Empire was so vast and so great, that no matter where you were, it seemed, the road would eventually lead back to Rome.

No matter where we look in this book, in the pages of Scripture…it doesn’t matter where we look in History…it all leads to Jesus, our Messiah, our Saviour.

Do we see Him as worthy?

Will we see Him for who He is? Will we trust Him for who He is? Do we see Him as worthy of following, worthy of seeking after? Like the man who sold all that he had to purchase that pearl of great price.

Jeremiah 29:13 “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.”

The call of Jesus, our Messiah, is an all-encompassing call on our lives. This invitation to come to Him, to seek Him and find Him… I don’t want to lessen in any way the message of the Gospel—of this Messiah we have spent the last 10 1/2 months searching for.

Jesus’ words are very clear:

Matthew 16:24 “Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

We see this reality lived out in the Apostle Paul:

Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Philippians 1:21 “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

The ONLY way this is worth it is if He is all that He claims to be. The ONLY way it is worth giving everything else up, is if He truly is the Messiah who was promised…the fulfillment of all that is in this book.

“I believe that once a person truly experiences the conscious, manifest presence of God, he will lose interest in everything else in this world.” ― A.W. Tozer, Experiencing The Presence Of God