Jesus The Messiah
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Introduction
Introduction
Happy Easter! Welcome!
Easter is the day that we remember the resurrection of Jesus.
We will certainly do that today, but we are going to look at a passage from the Bible that I have never used on Easter.
I hope it makes sense why we are doing this, so hang around until the end and hopefully everything will come together.
I have themed our Easter sermons this year around three verses from the book of Acts
Give some context
Jesus lived, died, resurrected, and ascended
This was the start of the new church.
Guys like Peter were carrying on the ministry Jesus left for them.
After about a chapter long sermon, Peter concludes the sermon with this sentence.
“Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”
In it he makes a very important statement:
Jesus is BOTH Lord AND Messiah
He isn’t one or the other, He is both, and.
After making this point, the people understood what Peter had meant. Here was their response:
When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
Something had happened in their hearts.
They were cut.
They learned an important fact. Jesus is both Lord and Messiah.
I know we talk about a personal relationship with Jesus.
Our approach to Jesus is personal. But we don’t make Jesus Lord of our lives.
We recognize that He is Lord. We don’t put Him in any position of authority.
He is in authority. We either submit to it or reject it. But the reality is, HE IS LORD!
He is also Messiah. That is what we want to talk about today.
The people asked, “What shall we do?”
They recognized they hadn’t submitted to Jesus as Lord.
They recognized that they had killed the Messiah.
They were devastated.
Peter responded:
Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Last week we looked at the Kingly entry of Jesus into Jerusalem
We saw how he intentionally fulfilled the prophecies that identified Him as King.
If you missed that, it is online and I encourage you to track it down and watch it.
We saw that Jesus is Lord.
What does it mean that Jesus is Messiah?
Messiah
Messiah
Most of us have heard the word “Messiah”
We sing songs about it. We say that Jesus was the Messiah. We all know the word, but if we are going to have to define what it means that Jesus was the Messiah, here is what the definition would look like:
Messiah- Something Jesus was called. A really important word. It means important things. It is really, really…really important.
There was something about Jesus being called the Messiah that cut people to the heart. It was important. So I want to take some time today and break down what it means that Jesus was Messiah.
It is important. But we need to know why it was important so we can understand who Jesus is.
Maybe understanding that Jesus is the Messiah will cut us to the heart as well.
The word Messiah comes from the Hebrew word “Messee-ah”.
It was not necessarily a name, but rather it was an identification.
Messiah means “Anointed one”
In the OT, anointing meant some really important things:
It means that someone was chosen and approved by God
This ceremony would be that the people around them had identified that they were chosen and approved by God for a certain function.
Priests
Kings
Prophets
There was prophecy that spoke of the coming Anointed One.
Not an anointed one. But The Anointed One.
Anointed- Chosen and approved by God for a purpose
In Acts, we see that Peter says that Jesus is both Lord AND Messiah.
He identifies Jesus as the Anointed One. The Messiah.
But the question still rests, what was Jesus anointed for? What was his purpose? Why was he chosen and approved by God?
We are very fortunate that the Bible gives us the answer to this question.
Now I know it is Easter, so please resist the urge to turn to the traditional Easter passages in your Bibles.
We are going to go to Isaiah 53 today. This will be our key passage.
This is a passage that is a prophecy about the coming Messiah.
In this prophecy, we will find what the Messiah was set apart to do.
This will tell us who He was to be.
He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished.
He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Pray
Pray
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Topic
As we dive into this, I want you to remember this.
Last week, we looked at prophecies about how a King would be raised up that would set the people free.
They misunderstood the “freedom” part of that prophecy, but they knew there would be a King.
As we read through this passage, we find that while the Kingly prophecies are powerful, the Messiah prophecies seem much different.
It is almost as if they couldn’t possibly be talking about the same person.
Let’s take a look at this passage.
Jesus is the Messiah, but what was he set apart to do? What was his purpose? What was his calling?
There are a few lines in this passage that give us some idea of what the Messiah was called to do.
Purpose of the Messiah:
Verse 6- “…the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Verse 8- “…for the transgression of my people he was punished.”
Verse 10- “…the Lord makes his life an offering for sin”
Verse 11- “…he will bear their iniquities.”
Verse 12- “For he bore the sin of many...”
The purpose that the Messiah was set apart was to be punished for and bear sin.
The process by which he would do this involved his death.
Even in the New Testament, this was seen
When Jesus went to JTB for Baptism, do you remember what JTB said?
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
This is a direct understanding of what Isaiah is saying the Messiah would do.
In summary so far, we know that the Messiah came to bear the sin of the world.
But how would he do that? What had to happen? We know the story, Jesus died on the cross.
It is an important story that we ought to become familiar with. But there is a part of this that I want to dive into today.
We have all heard the statement, “Jesus died for our sins”
But why did he have to die?
In the OT times, there was a blood sacrifice that was offered on behalf of the people for the remission of their sins.
But why?
Why death?
It seems like a bad look for God.
You know, he made this world. Sin happened. So why would he say, “Something has to die!”?
It seems better that God would just understand that sin was there and say, “It’s all ok. Don’t worry about it.”
But it wasn’t that way.
Rather than looking at the nature of God, I want to take a quick journey back to the book of Genesis and look at the nature of sin.
In Genesis, we see that man and God were in direct relationship with one another.
There was no barrier between them.
However, in Genesis 3, we see that Adam and Eve both sinned in the garden. From that point, the world changed.
There were consequences for sin immediately and for the rest of time.
One consequence was that they had to leave the Garden of Eden.
Was this God being petty? Or had sin changed something?
When sin entered the world, relationship between God and man changed.
They were separated from the place of His presence
They could no longer walk and talk with God like they did before.
That relationship changed.
In a nutshell, God remained holy. But man was no longer holy.
Holiness is something we don’t take much time to think about.
Man was unholy and his unholiness changed that relationship.
What could unholy man do to become holy again?
Sin made man unholy. God is holy. Holiness and unholiness don’t mix.
How could unholy man become holy?
There is absolutely no way that the unholy can become holy.
Once something is unholy, it can never go back to purity.
Holiness has a destination as does unholiness
God is holy. By definition, He is holiness personified.
Holiness leads directly to the presence of God
Unholiness leads to life apart from God
There are numerous consequences of this, but ultimately, death is the one we will focus on.
God is life. He is the author of life. All life comes from Him.
Separation from God is also separation from life.
Another word for this is death.
Another way of saying this is that the wages or consequences of sin is death.
So when sin entered the world in Genesis 3, I believe God had a choice.
Choice #1- Squish the world. It had become unholy and its destination is separated from Him.
God could destroy the sun, moon and stars that He had created
He could burn up the trees and animals
He could do away with Adam and Eve
He is God. He created this world. It is His.
Adam and Eve were created to be in His presence. Now they had chosen something that would prevent them from doing exactly what they were created to do.
Choice #1 sounds logical.
Choice #1 is just.
Choice #2- Redeem the unholy.
God didn’t kill Adam and Eve. Rather, He chose to make a way to restore them to the purpose He had created them.
God put into place a plan to make the unholy, holy.
Why would He do this? What if they didn’t respond?
He did it because God is also loving.
He loved Adam and Eve.
He didn’t want to squish them. He wanted to redeem them.
But the same free-will they had used to rebel was the same free-will they would have to use to return to Him.
The problem: How can something unholy be made holy?
In the OT, the path through this was through the means of sacrifice
A pure and spotless lamb would be killed in the place of the person to pay for their sins.
It was a picture of the consequence of unholiness before a holy God.
Death was the image of separation from God’s presence and the right judgment that sin had a penalty. Not one arbitrarily chosen by God. One that is a natural consequence of unholiness.
But Hebrews tells us this:
It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
There are no magical or holy qualities of a bull or lamb that was somehow holy-making.
It was a picture looking ahead to a time that the unholy could be made holy.
This is where Jesus enters the picture.
Jesus was God. Jesus was holy. In Isaiah we see the example of His life:
He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
Jesus lived a perfect sinless life. But his life had a purpose.
He had the job of bearing the sin of mankind. He had the job of making the unholy, holy.
His ministry had only one possible destination. The shedding of his blood.
It was the only possible destination to do what He came to do.
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
He willingly went to the cross.
He went because that is what he was anointed to do.
This was his calling.
This was his purpose
While on the cross, he was abandoned by everyone.
Alone on the cross, here is the story:
At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon.
And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).
He said, “Why have you forsaken me?”
That word forsaken is the Greek word “En-kat-elepis”- It means desert, abandon, or forsake
Holiness had died on the cross. He had paid the penalty of not only death, but separation from God the Father.
The natural consequence to sin was experienced by Jesus on the cross.
At that moment:
Purpose of the Messiah:
Verse 6- “…the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Verse 8- “…for the transgression of my people he was punished.”
Verse 10- “…the Lord makes his life an offering for sin”
Verse 11- “…he will bear their iniquities.”
Verse 12- “For he bore the sin of many...”
Then...
With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.
The Messiah did what He came to do.
Sin had been paid for. Not the sin of Jesus. But a payment for sin had been paid.
God showed His justice
The natural consequence of sin had been paid. The destination of the sinner has been completed.
God showed His love
by sending Jesus to die in our place and take this on in our place.
Good news!
After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.
He will justify many
Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Do you remember the purpose?
A way had been made for the unholy to become holy.
A just God would accept the sacrifice of Jesus on behalf of a sinner.
The sinner would be declared holy because there was no sin in Jesus.
The Really Good News!
After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.
He would see the light of life
Jesus would resurrect from the dead
Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
He now makes intercession for the transgressors
He is alive! He is resurrected from the dead!
Now, we have access to God the Father through Jesus Christ
Our unholiness is paid for at the cross through Jesus
We are Holy and we can be in the presence of a holy God
If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.
‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
“Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”
When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The whole purpose is to be in the presence of God and know Him.