Sermon Tone Analysis

As the curtain falls...

On the Law

Moses is the GREATEST in all of the OT, even more-so than the prophets and even king David.

Yet still, he is not the one Israel hopes for.

On the Prophets

While positioned in different sections of the Christian Bible and the TANAK, Malachi still ends the prophetic portions of both.

After this, there are 400 years of silence.

BUT, God breaks this silence and fulfills this prophecy when JTB steps on the scene before God gives His final Word (logos!), Jesus!

On the Writings

A few things that are significant at this point:

The fall of Jerusalem mentioned above ends a recollection of the wicked kings that followed Josiah.

And, I was heartbroken to read that Josiah was slain in battle because of his disobedience to the Lord.

After that, they’re all taken into exile.

So, the king, the throne, the line…exiled as the Jewish OT ends with this resounding gong of judgment on all sin.

And, yes, there is the proclamation of hope offered by Cyrus at the end, but we’re left staring into the dark abyss of judgment with only a candle’s flickering flame of hope set against it.

While Cyrus commissions the Israelites to return to Jerusalem and rebuild a temple, the closing of the canonical context suggests that the second temple was not the true temple.

The Passover, attached to the royal line as Josiah leads the people to celebrate it, go with the royal line into exile.

So, the royal line, the temple, and the passover all find themselves exiled at the end of the writings.

And, BTW, this is the end of the Bible Jesus would have read.

This is the end of the TANAK.

And, I think there is theology here that is so useful in helping us understand what happens next in the story.

Throughout the Advent season we’ve bounced back and forth between the darkness and the light.

We talked about the problem: sin and its devastating effects on creation.

Yet, there was a glimmer of hope, the promise of the seed in the midst of judgment.

Then Mike took the ball and traced this idea of promise.

He essentially preached the whole Bible in one sitting…pretty amazing!

Throughout salvation history, there was mercy and grace and the hope and expectation of a coming savior.

Yet over and over again Scripture seems to simply remind us of who IS NOT the Savior.

Even this morning, as each portion of the Jewish OT ends, there’s hope but there’s also judgment, shortcoming, and the nagging truth that the seed had not yet come.

Yearning.

Longing.

Hoping.

Waiting.

Failure.

Not yet.

Brokenness.

Exile.

Silence.

Until...

As The Light Shines...

The Son of Adam, Abraham, and the Greater Moses

Matt.1:1 “An account of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham:” Luke 3:38 “...son of Enos, son of Seth, son of Adam, son of God.”

Both of these genealogies are ripe with theological truth.

The Matthew passage traces Jesus’ genealogy back to Abraham, meaning that He’s the promised Son from the promised line.

The blessing of YHWH intended through Abraham’s seed is here!

But Luke’s record goes even farther, tracing Jesus’ line back to Adam and then ultimately God.

At the beginning of the Advent Season, we looked at “The Problem.”

Sin entered the world.

That’s recorded for us in Gen.3.

It’s against this dark backdrop that the hope of the gospel shines brightest, and it’s against this backdrop that the first promise of hope was given — Gen.3:15 “I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring.

He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”

Throughout the history of man, throughout salvation history, this promise is the soil from which all other promises spring, and Luke takes us all the way back to it, back to the beginning…this is the seed, the offspring, the One all of history has waited for.

And then remember how the Law ended?

With the death of Moses the Magnificent.

Guess what we find out about this Jesus — John 1:16-18 “Indeed, we have all received grace upon grace from his fullness, for the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

No one has ever seen God.

The one and only Son, who is himself God and is at the Father’s side—he has revealed him.”

There are two things that are AMAZING here:

The law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus.

John isn’t giving a contrast between the law and grace and truth.

One’s not evil while the other is good.

Ultimately both issue forth from God. They’re actually markers of different points or revelations in the course of salvation history.

But, here’s where things get good!

First, Gal.3:11 “Now it is clear that no one is justified before God by the law, because the righteous will live by faith.”

But the natural question that Paul anticipates comes a few verses later: Gal.3:19 “Why, then, was the law given?

It was added for the sake of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise was made would come.”

So then, Gal.3:21 “Is the law therefore contrary to God’s promises?

Absolutely not!

For if the law had been granted with the ability to give life, then righteousness would certainly be on the basis of the law.”

And here is why the law is good but grace and truth are better: the law could not give life.

But can Jesus?

I mean I’m making the argument that Jesus is better, that grace and truth is greater, so can Jesus give life?

So glad you asked.

We find that answer in the beginning of John’s gospel.

Matthew traces Jesus back to Abraham, and Luke traces Jesus back to Adam and then to God.

But John, oh, he’s my favorite gospel…he traces Jesus back to before time, back to before creation.

John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

As you keep reading, John makes this statement: Jn.1:3-5 “All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created.

In him was life, and that life was the light of men.

That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it.”

The echoes of Genesis are all over this.

First, “In the beginning God...” and “In the beginning was the Word” who “…was God.”

Second, the first thing God creates in Gen. 1 is light.

Ultimately that act of creation leads to the culmination on the sixth day, Gen.1:26-27 “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness.

They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.”

So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female.”

Light that leads to physical life.

But in John, notice what happens… John 1:4 “In him was life, and that life was the light of men.”

Further, the physical family came in Gen.1:28 “God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it.

Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.””

But the spiritual family came from Christ — John 1:12-13 “But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born, not of natural descent, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God.”

The law that came through Moses could not give life, but Jesus, the greater Moses, brought grace and truth and with it, LIFE!

But wait, there’s more!

Notice what the Scripture says in John 1:18 “No one has ever seen God.

The one and only Son, who is himself God and is at the Father’s side—he has revealed him.”

John’s hinting in not-so-subtle words that Jesus is better.

The whole thing is recalling this little episode in Exodus 33, where God speaks to Moses and assures him that the Promised Land will belong to Israel.

As the narrative progresses, we find out that Ex.33:11 “The Lord would speak with Moses face to face, just as a man speaks with his friend...” So that settles it, right?

Not so fast my friend, because a few short verses later, Ex.33:18 “Then Moses said, “Please, let me see your glory.””

And what does God tell him?